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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168187">In the Shadow of Dragons</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TehSoulja/pseuds/TehSoulja'>TehSoulja</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Characters raised by dragons, Child Abuse, Dragons, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Magic, No Incest, No Smut, Oral Vore, Predator/Prey friendship, Protective Siblings, Sibling Bonding, Slice of Life, Soft Vore, Suicide Attempt, Tags Are Hard, The Author Regrets Nothing, Vore, bad, endovore, hurt/comfot, safe vore, willing vore</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-09 02:29:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>363,193</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168187</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TehSoulja/pseuds/TehSoulja</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After a less than stellar childhood Arya is kicked to the streets by her father.<br/>She tries her best to survive without a home and somehow break out of the vicious cycle that is homelessness but to no avail.<br/>With her situation not improving, she lets nature decide her fate.<br/>She leaves society behind and heads into the dense forests surrounding her home town, bringing little more than the clothes on her back with her.<br/>Either she'll perish out there or she'll find a new purpose in life, though she's pretty sure it'll be the former.<br/>Little did she know what really awaited her under the treetops.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. In the Shadow of Dragons</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Now actually contains traces of vore, anything past Once Cold Day can be deemed the "danger" zone<br/>Dragons make an appearance chapter 5 Day of Salvation.<br/>Also this is very much a full blown work in progress still, I'll need to rewrite just about all of it at some point to fix my writing and plotholes so it may not be very nice to read.<br/>Incase anyone notices a bunch of chapters disappearing out of nowhere, don't worry I didn't delete anything. I finally got around to cleaning up a little and merging a bunch of chapters together and actually giving them titles for once.<br/>It's all still there just formatted a little different.<br/>From now on I'll probably keep posting the smaller segments as they come in and once I finish a chapter merge them all together into one.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I sit down under the nearest tree, next to my brother. It’s been a calm week, unexpectedly calm after what happened. Though that didn’t mean everything was quiet and peaceful, we both know that things are a changing, big things. But we need not concern ourselves with those, for now we get to just be together and worry about nothing, which is quite nice for a change.</p><p>I tilt my head back and look up at the late afternoon sky, it is summer, so the sun is still high up in sky and it’ll be a while until sunset. In the meantime, we’ll get to enjoy the clear sky, only a few occasional clouds strewn throughout and a light breeze blowing against my skin.</p><p>I look over to my brother who’s sprawled out on the ground just a few feet (~1m) away. I envy him a little, his body deals so much better with a wide range of temperatures, in the meantime I have to hide in the shade all the time since anything above 80°F (~26°C) feels too hot for me. At least today we the wind makes the 85°F (~30°C) bearable.</p><p>I lie down in the grass and stare into the azure blue sky, it feels weird having nothing to do like this, I had gotten quite used to always having something or someone on your heels forcing you to keep moving and improving, now that suddenly wasn’t the case anymore and I don’t know what to do with myself.</p><p>I watch the clouds pass above us and imagine myself flying among them, something I always wanted to do but never could. I take in all the sensations of our surroundings, the rustling of the leaves as the wind blows through the treetops, the blades of grass rocking in the wind, the chilly soil beneath my back and the birds chirping in the distance.</p><p>It’s quite serene, I wouldn’t be upset at all if this ever to become my life actually.</p><p>For the first time, I think I fully realize that I can actually be at peace now, that there won’t be anyone or anything coming to chase us, to hurt us or worse.</p><p>I begin to zone out and let my thoughts wander, I can feel all the pent-up tension of the last few years leave my body and mind. While my muscles suddenly feel weak, it doesn’t concern me, I actually quite enjoy the feeling.</p><p>I lie there on the ground, mindlessly staring up, dwelling on whatever thought happens to cross my mind. Silly things like, would life be different if leaves were blue instead of green, are colours just an illusion, how would an extra type of cone cells affect life and many more.</p><p>Eventually I find myself stuck on a rather odd question, if you were to life in an eternal, all-encompassing shadow, would you be aware of it, could you be aware of it in the first place?</p><p>I can’t find a conclusive answer, but I also can’t let it go.</p><p>After it still haven’t found a conclusion in some thirty minutes, I decide it’s time to bother my brother, I sit up and slightly turn my head. “If you were to live in an eternal, all-encompassing shadow, would you be aware of it, could you ever be aware of it?” He stirs slightly and opens one eyes just enough to glance at me. <strong><em>“Are we talking literal or proverbial?” </em></strong>He speaks with tiredness in his voice, he hasn’t quite recovered from last week either.</p><p>“Hmmmm, good thinking, I assume if it were in the literal sense you wouldn’t ever evolve eyes to begin with so you wouldn’t have a concept of what a shadow is…” He nods slowly. <strong><em>“If it were a proverbial shadow…I’m not sure either.” </em></strong></p><p>I purse my lips, fold my hands and rest my chin on them. “If you were to live in the proverbial shadow of something, it would become normal for you I think, since it’s always there wherever you go, it’ll soon enough become the status quo, or at least gain the status of a myth or legend.”</p><p><strong><em>“Fair point, but once it becomes the norm, you’ll have no way of knowing otherwise. In the end it’ll probably be no different than a literal shadow.” </em></strong>I murmur approvingly. When you look at it like that it only makes sense, I also remember how quickly you become blind for the things that are always there, the sky, the ground, your clothing, you’re only occasionally aware of their existence at best.</p><p>Thinking some more about it I realize that such a shadow had been cast on humanity many aeons ago and it was about to be lifted soon, 5500 years of living in the shadow of something big and being blissfully unaware. It’ll be quite the thing to see unravel, though at the same time I can’t find myself caring too much, in the end it won’t affect me at all.</p><p>With the question finally answered I lie back down and resume my mindless trance.</p><p>As I’m lost in thought, thinking about a time just two years ago where I was struggling to even survive, let alone do anything of value for anyone, I realize how much I’ve changed since then, going from someone so weak and frail, they might fall apart if you sneeze at them wrong or dare to speak to them. To someone who has little reason to be afraid of, well just about anything really. I remember all the times I felt helpless, if it were to happen now things would go differently, very differently. <em>“Almost like a character from some terrible fantasy book…” </em>I think to myself and shake my head.</p><p><em>“Where did it even start?”</em> I wonder. <em>“Time for a trip down memory lane.” </em> With nothing to do I figure it can’t hurt to relive my past.</p><p>I was quite lucky to be born into a peaceful time period, from what I learned humanities history was filled with turmoil. Sadly, a couple hundred years before I was born things went haywire and almost everything from before the year 2000 was lost.</p><p>It all began around the year 2050, climate change is still progressing quickly but the efforts to slow it down were finally bearing fruit, the increase in CO<sub>2 </sub>in the atmosphere was slowing down and things were looking like we may just barely avoid a mass extinction. A decade or two pass and it becomes evident that our efforts were in fact too late, the planet had entered a feedback loop. While things had plateaued off for a while, all it took to send the planet spiralling out of control were a few unfortunate events coinciding with one another.</p><p>By the year 2100 vast stretches of land became borderline uninhabitable resulting in tremendous streams of humans searching refuge in the still liveable areas. In the following decade all sorts of mayhem broke loose, tens or hundreds of millions die from famine and general resource scarcity. Yet the worst was still to come.</p><p>With humanity already so vulnerable events took a turn for the worst when a super volcano blew up, it was among the largest eruptions the planet had seen to that day. Billions, if not trillions of tons of ash, debris, CO<sub>2</sub>, SO<sub>2</sub> and other toxic gasses were flung into the atmosphere.</p><p>This pushed the planet and humanity over the edge, live became nigh impossible, hundreds of species died out in just the following decade and over the course of the next century humanity was absolutely decimated.</p><p>Losing about 99% of all living humans and a huge percentage of all flora and fauna, the planet turned into a desolate wasteland straight out of a Hollywood movie.</p><p>In the following centuries live just barely manages to scrape by, only the most adaptable species surviving, humans being one of them.</p><p>The human population keeps slowly declining over time, likely because they were catapulted back to the 16<sup>th</sup> century and staying alive was incredibly rough.</p><p>Eventually though, the dust quite literally settles and the climate on the planet becomes a lot less hostile to life. By now the year 2300 had passed and finally humanity begins to gather the scraps of the past civilization and starts to slow process of rebuilding what it once was.</p><p>At the same time nature begins to bloom again too, many of the surviving species quickly rebound from the brink of extinction. What follows is possibly the most impressive period of our existence. All 70 million remaining humans work together, putting their differences aside, for the current state of humanity does not allow them to care about petty things.</p><p>In the following century human kind recovers quickly, the population slowly growing in numbers, societal structures being re-established and science advancing at an unprecedented rate. By the year 2450 they had gotten back to a 20<sup>th</sup> century state in almost all regards, in some they even appear to be ahead. Numbers had climbed to just over 100 million humans and were picking up speed rapidly, doubling in the subsequent 50 years. Around the year 2500 people began to realize that at this rate they would end up in the same place they were in 500 years ago, facing tremendous issues that seem nigh impossible to overcome. Thus, the difficult decision is made to limit the growth of humanity, hard. Laws are put in place to limit the increase in population, and while some rotten individuals try to spoil the efforts of all for selfish reasons their efforts luckily thwarted. The new laws also limit the growth of human kind as a whole but almost all agree that, that is preferable over the possibility of facing another Armageddon soon or later. By now the year 2600 had come to pass, humanity was doing great, with only 125 million of them surviving some aspects of living are a lot less comfortable than they are today but everyone is okay with that. It’s almost as if the selfish part of all humans was eradicated during the apocalypse. Which reminds of something I find rather curious, religion completely ceased to exist by now, it seems most gave up faith and those that didn’t simply died in the devastation following the volcano blowing up. With humanity and the planet in a stable state centuries pass, advancements are made slowly but steadily, the quality of life for all keeps creeping upwards. The year 2800 comes to pass and I am born.</p><p>I dive deeper into my memories, digging to the bottom of it all takes a while but soon enough I find the earliest memory I can recall.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Early years of Sorrow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s my fourth birthday, I’m about to blow out the candles on the cake. I take a glance around the room to see my handful of friends and mother standing around me, cheering me on. Someone is absent though, my father. I ask my mother where he is, she shrugs and says something along the lines of “He couldn’t make it.” I feel a little sad, for my friend’s birthday their fathers were always there, celebrating along with everyone else, but mine never was there, not even on my birthday.</p><p>The unhappiness is only temporary though, just moments later I’m back to playing and doing things four-year olds do.</p><p>But the feeling that something is off with my father never left, it only grows stronger with every passing month. It feels like I’m a ghost to him, no matter when I’m home, he rarely is and when we do cross paths, he feels distant, like I’m inconveniencing him.</p><p>Though I manage to push those feelings aside for the largest part, I still have my mom after all and she’s always there for me.</p><p>I weakly smile to myself. The naivety of kids is something else.</p><p>After my birthday the feeling of something being different with my dad lingers, and with every passing month it grows stronger, every time I see other kids with their fathers, they look so happy to see them. At the age of five, I begin to wonder why, why does my father ignore me? Every time I try to get his attention it results in him turning his head or leaving the room.</p><p>It’s another year before curiosity gets the better of me and I decide to really push it. I want an answer so when he leaves the room again, I follow, I keep at it and it appears to work. He finally turns around to me, though the attention I get isn’t what I wanted.</p><p>“CAN YOU STOP BOTHERING ME YOU USELESS LITTLE SHIT? DON’T YOU SEE I HAVE THINGS TO DO?” I immediately break down crying, this isn’t what I wanted to happen. He groans and with slightly lower voice growls: “Listen here you little shit, get out now before I make you regret it.”</p><p>Without even thinking about it I take off to my room and hide under my bed sheets, the rest of the day is a blur, I stop crying eventually but also don’t dare leave my room, not even for food, I’m too scared.</p><p>At some point I fall asleep, dried tear streaks all over my face. That night I have some of the worst nightmares I ever had, twisted monsters, wearing my father’s face, chase after me and when they catch me, slowly tear me to pieces, limb by limb, bone by bone with their barbed tentacle arms.</p><p>Unlike other nightmares I can’t wake up, I have to suffer through all of it, until I’m nothing more than bloody pulp.</p><p>I’m only released from my torment when my mom wakes me up for school the next morning.</p><p>My eyes refuse to open, the crust of dried tears is too thick and holds my eyelashes together, my cheeks hurt, and entire head feels hot.</p><p>Once I can finally open my eyes, I look up at my mother with tired eyes. Instead of words of consolation I get a “Please leave your father alone, he’s very stressed because of work right now.”<br/>I nod sombrely and sniff.</p><p>She gets back up and leaves the room, seemingly in a hurry.</p><p>I slowly crawl out of bed and get ready for school, the rest of the week feels really weird, as if I were living life from a third persons perspective.</p><p>I spend the entire weekend in my room, only sneaking downstairs for breakfast and dinner once my parents finish.</p><p>During those seemingly endless hours I spend a lot of time trying to find out why my father doesn’t like me, is it that I’m a bad daughter? Sure, my mother said something of him being stressed, but surely, he couldn’t have been “stressed” for the last two years…</p><p>The only real reason I can come up with is that I’m not doing good enough at school, or maybe I’m not enough like him, after all he’s a smart scientist who does some cool research and from what I had seen parents liked it when their children did good in things they liked.</p><p>On Sunday I vow to myself that I shall do my very best to make my father like me.</p><p>For the next two years I bend over backwards to do well in school and spend a good chunk of my free time sticking my head into books about science.</p><p>While I’m unsure whether it’s working or not at first, even after a year there seems to be no change, even though I’ve turned into a near flawless student.</p><p>Feeling helpless I turn to my mother for help, but my question gets answered with a <em>helpful</em> “No, no Arya, he loves you, he just struggles with showing it.”</p><p>Even then, I already had a feeling, that that wasn’t the truth.</p><p>Nonetheless I decide to push myself harder, there were still things I felt could improve and so I did.</p><p>However, all this came at a cost. The more I tried to appease my father, the less I kept contact with my already small circle of friends. I never was much of an outgoing person to begin with.</p><p>Soon I only had two friends left and even them, I didn’t spend much time with.</p><p>Before I know it it’s my eighth birthday, it’s a tiny affair compared to what I heard and saw from others, just four people. My two friends, my mother and me, my father absent as usual.</p><p>Still we do the usual birthday things, in a way having so few people around felt nice, it meant a lot less fighting. Towards the end of it however, I remember that my father has still missed every birthday of mine and every other milestone in my life as well. So, I turn to my mother again and ask:” Is my dad going to come home soon.” It’s already eight pm so in an hour I’ll be fast asleep.</p><p>“I’m sure he’ll be some soon darling.” My mother answers, though something about her voice and demeanour feels off. I nod silently and enjoy the last half an hour before my friends have to head home.</p><p>The clock hits nine pm, I’m in bed, ready to go to sleep. My father still has to show up.</p><p>I feel like I’m supposed to be sad or disappointed, but I can’t feel anything.</p><p>Throughout the next year, not much changes. Through all the studying I do in my free time, I’ve gotten so far ahead of school, I don’t actually need to pay much attention in class. As such I wind up extremely bored most of the time.</p><p>I figure with nothing better to do I might try to expand my social circle a little but in just about every case I get turned ignore, made fun of or am forgotten about. It doesn’t bother me much however. I’ve gotten used to that from home. Though deep down, it affirms the idle thoughts I’d been having, if my father doesn’t want anything to do with me and neither do others, then there must be something wrong with me.</p><p>With humans being of little help, except for my friend and sometimes my mother, I turn to books to keep me occupied. Until then I had almost exclusively read books pertaining to school topics or similar. I had read a few fiction books and enjoyed them but didn’t find the time to read more than a few. So, I took the small allowance I had and started buying some.</p><p>I found myself quite enjoying them, they let me ignore my surroundings whenever I needed.</p><p>Out of the handful of random sci-fi and fantasy novels I bought, one in particular enthrals me more than others, it’s about the medieval times. A tale of a princess captured by the evil dragon that has been tormenting the kingdom of centuries. The valiant prince tries to save the princess from the claws of this monster only to find out that the dragon wasn’t the evil after all. He was only trying to take out the king who had been ruling for nearly a century. The king was an evil magician who caused many of the calamities attributed to the dragon. But couldn’t succeed due to the magic barrier protecting the King.</p><p>When the prince returns that night, he sneaks into the kings’ quarters and murders him by driving his sword through his chest.</p><p>I enjoyed it so much because I saw myself in the dragon, hated by all for something that wasn’t his doing with no way of convincing the others.</p><p>I read that story many times over and end up buying a few more novels by the same author. They all happen to involve dragons as the perceived evil but in the end the story twists in a way that makes them the actual good guys.</p><p>The other four or so books, sci-fi, detective stories and other fantasy tales bring me my fair share of enjoyment too, but they don’t have me going back to reread chapters or have me wallowing in my thoughts, reimaging parts of it.</p><p>With this newfound escape from the real world, my life enters something of a steady state. I do my best at school, though it doesn’t take much effort of me to get straight A’s and spend my time at home reading the same dozen odd novels I got lying around. Sometimes I even spend some hours just sitting on my bed, book in hand, staring at the wall and fantasizing about the events I just read. In between school and me reading books there’s the occasional run in with my father, the odd days where I feel extra courageous and try to get his attention. This is either met with disdain, ignorance or scolding for no particular reason.</p><p>On one or two days I even dare to push further, asking him what I need to do for him to not dislike me, after all I’ve been doing all I could to be the perfect daughter.</p><p>That is always met with an angry growl, an intense glare at me and him stomping off while grumbling something like “Just look at your stupid face.”</p><p>On those nights I spend excessive time staring at the mirror, trying to find what’s wrong with my looks. Though I never find anything, I look like most of my peers’ do, hell half the time it’s difficult to tell whether someone is a boy or a girl. Sure, that’ll change sooner or later but right now? I can’t see why. Or is it that he wants me to look different from the others? That wouldn’t make sense either, my mom looks very average too. Sure, her teeth are a little crooked but so are mine.</p><p>On those nights I struggle with falling asleep, the questions won’t leave me alone. What is wrong with me? What do I need to do? Why won’t he give me a straight answer?</p><p>After the first few times I learn that it’s best for me to push those questions onto the backburner and not worry myself with them, they are riddles that aren’t meant to be solved now.</p><p>My ninth and tenth birthday come to pass, they aren’t much different from my eighth. I spend the afternoon with my two friends and my mother makes us food and brings out some games to play while my father is nowhere to be seen until after I go to bed.</p><p>On my tenth birthday, I decide to see when my father actually comes home. Tomorrow was Saturday anyway so it didn’t matter how long I stayed up anyway.</p><p>I don’t exactly know how much time passed when I hear the front door open and fall shut a moment later, then I hear my mother and father talk about something.</p><p>I begin to wonder if this had been happening for each of my birthdays, they’ve all felt so similar after all.</p><p>It shouldn’t be surprised but still I find myself saddened and disappointed. I fall asleep with a frown chiselled into my face that night.</p><p>During the summer after my tenth birthday, I get to go to secondary school, thanks to skipping an entire grade a year earlier. This means I lose one of my two friends. She didn’t quite make the cut for skipping a grade. Luckily my other friend did, so I’ll at least have someone I know with me at the next school, and it’ll only be a year before my other friend will join us again anyway.</p><p>During the graduation ceremony the two of us get a special shout out for being so far ahead of the curve, we even get to go up on stage and a teacher hands us a little trophy of sorts for our efforts.</p><p>Well for me it took some effort at least, my friend just happens to be way too smart for his age for no reason.</p><p>As we walk back down from the stage I notice that his parents are already waiting for him, congratulating him and showering him in praise and attention. The rest of his family isn’t far either. A sight entirely unfamiliar to me.</p><p>I trot back to my seat, next to my mom, and sit down with an exasperated sigh. “What’s the matter Arya, you should be happy, you did great.” My mom says and hugs me.</p><p>“I know I should be…” I say, staring at the ground. “But I wonder why only you could make it here today. I know my father is busy with work, but it never seems like he has time for me, ever. He can’t be that busy for over 5 years, or can he? Also, where’s the rest of our family? I suppose we have aunts, uncles and whatnot?”</p><p>My mom freezes for a moment, then suddenly let’s go off me and sits up in an oddly straight manner.</p><p>“It’s always bad timing with his work sadly and our extended family hasn’t been particularly nice to us, so we don’t see them much. You wouldn’t want to be around bad people, anyway right?”<br/>“Every time when something related to me happens for the past four or five years? Also, he still seems to have time for other things.” I retort, I don’t know why I’m feeling so upset by this today. I predicted how it would go weeks ago but I guess there was some part of me who was still hopeful.</p><p>“Listen, I don’t know either, sometimes things like this happen. There’s nothing we can do about it.” She sounds quite irritated now.</p><p><em>“Yea, sometimes. I’ve yet to see a single family where anything like that happens remotely as often. Let’s also ignore that I’ve yet to spend more than five minutes in the same room with him outside of lunch or dinner.” </em>I think to myself with a frown on my lips.</p><p>During the ride back home, an uncomfortable silence fills the car and I spend the entire time staring out the window.</p><p>I spend most of the summer holidays in my room, reading or just lying around thinking.</p><p>Thinking about better places, how it feels unfair that my father seemingly hates me, wondering what else I need to do and how I wish I were someone else.</p><p>After weeks of mulling over my father’s behaviour I decide to stop trying for his attention.</p><p>I can’t think of anything else I could try to appease him so maybe he just hates me for no reason. That doesn’t mean I’ll change anything though. Coincidentally I found myself quite enjoying almost all subjects, the science in particular caught my attention. I just won’t be doing it for my father’s sake anymore.</p><p>I also figure that I can consider myself lucky that my mother at least seems mostly normal, sure she isn’t helpful when it comes to my father but outside of that she’s mostly the normal mom, if quite a bit more held back than others. She still helps me when I hurt myself, used to read me good night stories when I was younger and just generally does mother things.</p><p>Eventually the new school year starts, thanks to past experiences I don’t even try to form new friendships and just stick to my one friend.</p><p>At the new school I also get to take a whole array of new exciting subjects like chemistry, biology and physics. There are also some less interesting ones that I find myself enjoying nonetheless, like history and geography.</p><p>Even art and philosophy turn out more enjoyable than expected, I’ve never been good at them, but they give some way to express myself. The only subjects that I don’t particularly enjoy are swimming and PE. They already hadn’t been my favourites back in primary school but now that we actually get graded on them, I almost hate them but at least my teacher tends to give good grades to pupil who try.</p><p>With all these new subjects being shoved into my schedule I spend a lot more time at school, which turns out to be a very good thing as I spend a lot less time home.</p><p>As such the year flies by in no time. I only have a few confrontations with my father, and I manage to supplant those memories much quicker. My self-doubt withdraws quite a bit too as a consequence.</p><p>During those “happy” days I realize just how down I had been feeling for the past years, I hadn’t noticed then but now it feels like a huge weight was lifted of my shoulders.</p><p>Much sooner than anticipated, my eleventh birthday happens, just like my tenth and so does my twelfth. While it’s only me, my friend and my mum for my eleventh birthday, my other friends couldn’t make it, I enjoy it a lot, I even get to have a sleepover with him as my dad is on a business trip, something about             advanced training. Probably one of the best days that year and the years past.</p><p>Though sadly it wouldn’t last as the next week my father comes back and so do the stupid comments.</p><p>During that week I notice how nice it is to not have to live in the shadow of someone that hates you, how it feels to not need to worry about incessant belittling. It almost has me fighting back at first, but I always remind myself of what happens when I do and that it never changes anything. So, I force myself to bite my tongue and instead just think to myself.</p><p>While having to hold myself back makes me an angry rebellious person at times it also turns out to be a good outlet. Once I’m done being angry about the millionth stupid comment from my father, I feel quite a bit more relaxed than before. Like all those imaginary arguments I won in my head, something about mentally giving him a piece of my mind feels satisfying.</p><p>With this newfound outlet for my irritation life at home becomes almost bearable. Sure, it would be better if he were gone but I can tolerate this.</p><p>However, my “happiness” isn’t supposed to last.</p><p>When my friend that didn’t skip a grade was supposed to join me at secondary school her parents have to move for reasons she didn’t want to get into.</p><p>Thus, I wind up with only one friend left.</p><p>Just before my thirteenth birthday something changes in me, puberty sets in and so do the periods.</p><p>I had already known such a thing was bound to happen, not from my parents though, like so many things I first read about it.</p><p>Luckily it happens to be a weekend and my mom apparently anticipated it as she already had some pads in my size.</p><p>It takes me a couple months to get used to the pain, cramps and general discomfort that comes with it but luckily it happens to be bearable, from what I pick up at school during breaks many have it a lot worse than I do.</p><p>In the same timeframe as my periods set in something appears to change in my father too, his belittling comments become viler, more hate filled and more frequent.</p><p>The changes upset me quite a bit, to the point I wind up losing sleep over them. I can’t quite figure out why, especially why now.</p><p>My usual tactic of mentally mocking him doesn’t help anymore, I feel so much more powerless than before.</p><p>I force myself to ignore it, shove his comments into a faraway corner of my mind until I forget about them but even with all my efforts, the seed of doubt, planted long ago, sprouts.</p><p>As my fourteenth birthday approaches, the frequency of his comments increases to the point where I refuse to leave my room while he’s in the house, going as far as barricading the door to my room.</p><p>Around this time my school opens its new library, it had been under renovation ever since I started going to school there. It’s huge and the book shelves stretch from the floor all the way to the ceiling, brimming with just about every genre of literature there is.</p><p>In no time it turns into something of a safe haven for me, a space away from home where I can hide. It’s open till eight pm on weekdays and even opens for six hours each day on the weekends. I wind up staying there until they kick me out every day, reading my way through every section there is. I won’t stop till I read every book in this building.</p><p>Luckily, I can just barely afford the monthly fees for access outside of school hours with my meagre allowance. My parents haven’t raised since I turned eight and I don’t dare ask for more.</p><p>Eventually the librarian notices how I spend a lot of time there.</p><p>He comes over to me at some point, wondering why. At first, I try giving him none answers but he seems to know that something is up and keeps prying.</p><p>Eventually I open up a little and tell him about how I’m not comfortable at home, how my father clearly doesn’t like me.</p><p>He expresses his condolences and tries to console me, but I reject him, after all I’ve by now decided that my father is nothing more than a sperm donor for me.</p><p>Not an actual parent and as such doesn’t matter. The librarian appears a little shocked by my lack of emotions but leaves me alone afterwards.</p><p>At first the situation at home seems to improve somewhat as I spend more and more time away but it’s just the calm before the storm. Once I turn fourteen my body kicks into high gear and begins developing all the usual female features. It becomes quite clear that I got a lot of my mother’s genes and that I’ll probably be someone who will be considered conventionally beautiful.</p><p>For some reason it appears to set my father off even more.</p><p>Now his jabs become a constant thing, whenever I come into his sight, he has something to say about how I’m stupid, dumb, ugly and worthless. I know better than to retort something, after all he already blew up at me when I was five and got closer several times since. I don't want to know what’ll happen now.</p><p>After a month or two I can’t bear it anymore and confront my mother about his behaviour.</p><p>All she has to say is:” He’s being very stressed like that and he becomes mean when he’s stressed. I’m sure it’ll come to pass.”</p><p>I roll my eyes and grumble: “Just like him ignoring me came to pass, sure.”</p><p>“Hey, he’s just like that. I can’t force him to change.” She replies, her desperation clear as day.</p><p>I just shake my head, turn on my heel and head upstairs, leaving my mom standing in the hallway.</p><p>That night I barricade my door as much as I can and hide under my blanket, I feel despair and sadness stronger than I ever felt before. I want to cry but I can’t. I want to cease existing, but I can’t. I want to change my situation, but I feel powerless to do so.</p><p><em>“Why? Why does my father hate me? Is he jealous? Why would he be? Why doesn’t my mother do something about it?”</em><br/>These five questions chase each other in circles around my head.</p><p>At some point I hear someone try to open the door, probably my mother trying to check in on me.<br/>“Go away.” I growl from under the sheets. She tries once more to open the door, leans into it a little. I can hear some of the things I threw in front of the door shift but then she gives up and leaves.</p><p>The next morning, I get up much earlier than usual, before either of my parents are awake.</p><p>I get myself ready for school and leave over an hour early. I just can’t stand the stupid walls of this stupid house anymore.</p><p>Over the next weeks I spend every minute I can away from home. Most of that time I still spend in the library, but my book choice starts shifting, where I previously picked a mix of books on the current topics in class and assorted novels, I now prioritize fantasy novels above all else. I begin to use them as an escape from the real world even more than before, I begin to become fully absorbed in them to the point where I entirely lose track of reality. I forget to drink and eat more often that I want to admit.</p><p>The librarian notices my change in behaviour and once again comes up to me.</p><p>“It’s getting worse at home?” He asks me as I’m digging through the shelves.</p><p>I nod absently as I skim the blurb of a book that caught my attention.</p><p>He mumbles something I don’t quite catch which finally gets me to turn my attention away from the book.</p><p>The librarian looks around and fidgets with his fingers. “I know you can’t afford the take-out fees for the books but if you can promise to bring them back soon, I can let you take a few homes with you. Just don’t tell anyone and make sure no one sees you.”</p><p>I tilt my head a little in curiosity. “Oh? Really?” I don’t question how he knows about my financial situation, my constant digging for pennies and the panicked look I get at times when more than ten cents go missing probably gave me away.</p><p>I look down at the book in my hands, a thick novel about a war between dragons and humans.</p><p>Finally, my brain fully processes what he just offered me and freezes for a moment. Is this stranger being nice to me without ulterior motives? I stare at the book with empty eyes for a solid minute as I try to process his offer. I’m truly astounded and entirely taken aback.</p><p>I crack a slight smile and look back at the man standing a few feet (~1m) away from me. “Thank you so much…I don’t know how to express my gratitude…” I fidget with the book and excitement rises in me. This could be the single greatest thing that happened to me yet. Maybe home life will be bearable now.</p><p>“There’s no need to, just make sure to keep this between us.” He says in a hush voice and scurries back to his desk, sorting through whatever papers he has stacked up there.</p><p>As he sits down, I turn my attention back to the bookshelf and with a wide grin begin picking out a handful of smaller books that are less likely to be noticed missing.</p><p>Finally, I’ll have more than the dozen odd books I own to read at home. With the library eating all my money I haven’t been able to afford any new ones in a while.</p><p>With a handful books in my bag I sit back down at the reading table and begin reading through the first book I picked up.</p><p>The adrenaline rush I got from the librarians’ gracious offer still hasn’t worn off and I can’t focus on the words in front of me. Too great is my excitement.</p><p>I lose myself in my thoughts and idly stare at the pages, occasionally flipping to the next.</p><p>The next time I look up it’s already ten to eight. I carefully peek into my bag to check the books I’m planning to sneak out, then zip it up thoroughly, put the book I was reading back into the shelve and make my way out.</p><p>As I’m passing the librarians desk next to the exit I slow down and give him a nod.<br/>He momentarily looks up from his files and nods back.</p><p>I walk home much more quickly than usual, the dread I usually feel walking these streets replaced with excitement.</p><p>Now that I get to take books home with me, life at home will be a lot more bearable. I can just flee into the wonderful world of fantasy the moment I get home until I go to sleep and since my father doesn’t actively seek me out to insult me, I won’t have to hear his stupid voice.</p><p>While I have my doubts that it’ll work at first the coming weeks prove me wrong, I manage to just about entirely avoid my father.</p><p>A side effect of all this is that I lose what little contact I still held with my only friend, while previously I’d use some of my down time at work to call and chat with him, I now much prefer my books.</p><p>He does keep trying to stay in touch for a while but as I hide myself deeper in deeper in the worlds of my books and my own little fantasies he eventually gives up, leaving me with no more friends.</p><p>Not that I mind too much, I’ve just about lost all interest in the real world. The only time I actually try to interact with anyone is in school as my good grades are the only thing I take pride in.</p><p>Eventually I turn fifteen, the first birthday that I don’t celebrate at all.</p><p>To me it feels like just another day, however my mother still bakes me a cake and somehow manages to get me downstairs to blow out the candles as per usual.</p><p>Thus I wind up sitting on my chair in the kitchen, my mother next to me, probably pretending to be proud of me. Blowing out the fifteen candles on the cake that’ll at best get half eaten. A truly pitiful sight to behold.</p><p>Around then it also becomes evident beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I must have won the proverbial genetic lottery.</p><p>While others around me struggle with hormones, acne and all the other fun things that come with being a teen, I get to deal with none of it.</p><p>My body just does its thing without affecting me much physically outside of the usual changes.</p><p>Also due to my terrible eating habits I end up becoming rather thin which apparently is a good thing. I really have no clue as I never paid much mind to beauty ideals and what not.</p><p>Coincidentally, around this time my father amps up the abuse some more. While I could previously avoid him by simply hiding in my room, he now begins to actively seek me out and yell profanities at me. How all I ever do is read, why can’t I just be normal? I’ll never amount to anything and that people will only ever love me for my looks if at all.</p><p>When I try to ignore him by just burying my head deeper in my books, he ends up taking them from me and throwing them across the room.</p><p>In fear of a book breaking I begin bringing less and hiding those that I do bring with me.</p><p>In addition to that I attempt to avoid him I by spending the time between the library closing and my bedtime in public parks around my home but after a week that results in the biggest blow up yet.</p><p>I can’t remember what was said but it lasted for just shy of an hour. An hour of him screaming, at me, pretending to strike out and verbally tearing me apart until I’m reduced to a sobbing mess on the floor. I just want to cease to exist, I wish for the ground to open up and swallow me.</p><p>Then he grounds me for the next week, only allowing me to leave the house for school.</p><p>Somehow, I manage to survive that week from hell. It’s all a blur.</p><p>After that week everything kind of returns to “normal”, as if nothing happened,</p><p>I stay in the library till eight pm, then go home, get yelled at for ten to fifteen minutes a day, eat dinner on my own afterwards and go to sleep.</p><p>During those days I begin to lose touch with reality entirely, my fantasy world and the worlds of books have entirely substituted the real world. I spend my days in a trance, as a zombie staggering around.</p><p>In the few rare cases where I find myself in the real world it’s not long until I imagine myself getting abducted into my fantasy world or otherwise ending up in them.</p><p>Over the years my fantasy world has evolved quite a bit, from just being a minor variation of the real world to something that looks entirely alien. The only common thread since my childhood has been the existence of dragons. I had always been fascinated by them but now they were really starting to take over my fantasy. They begin to become a major part of the world, often substituting humans entirely.</p><p>This is probably catalysed by me reading nothing but fiction anymore as anything pertaining to the real world puts me on the verge of a breakdown.</p><p>As time passes the wish to leave this world behind grows in me, at first, it’s merely an idle thought but with every passing week it grows stronger and soon I find myself longing for nonexistence.</p><p>Months later, in one of the few clear moments, I try to speak to a teacher about my home situation.</p><p>I had known that it wasn’t normal but never thought it was extraordinary enough to warrant an intervention, but I had come to realize that what I was going through in those weeks was far from normal.</p><p>He asks me to elaborate on why I don’t feel safe at home, what makes me fear for my life.</p><p>I stutter and sputter, I can’t find words for it and all that fills my mind is a picture of my father and his words echo around my skull. Disrupting any thoughts, I might have had.</p><p>He appears to grow a little impatient with when I couldn’t get out a straight sentence after several tries.</p><p>He’s about to get up and leave, clearly annoyed at me for wasting his time.</p><p>“My father.” I blurt out all the sudden.</p><p>He freezes right there as he’s about to stand up and slowly turns his head towards me.</p><p>Horrified, I put a hand in to my mouth and I feel my face glowing red hot.</p><p>My teacher sits back down and folds his hands, then rests his chin on them, a gesture to get me to talk more.</p><p>I begin to hyperventilate but somehow manage to force myself to calm down. <em>“This is you only chance Arya, don’t waste it.” </em>I tell myself and take a deep breath.</p><p>I straighten my back and think hard, all the while trying to keep trauma of my father’s abuse down.</p><p>Over the next hour I talk at my teacher like a waterfall, listing events of him threatening me, screaming at me unprovoked and seeking me out just to tear me down.</p><p>At the end of it I’m shaking, resting my hands on my thigh, arms quivering with every breath and strands of hair sticking to my face. I’ve never felt so exhausted.</p><p>The teacher says he’ll speak to his superiors about it and that they’ll see what can be done.</p><p>He appears shell shocked and has some genuine pity in his eyes.</p><p>“T-thank you…” I stutter and lightly bow my head.</p><p>I hope that something, anything, can be done so that I don’t have to see my father anymore.</p><p>A week passes and I don’t hear anything. I expected the whole process to take a while, so I stay patient and wait.</p><p>The outlook of possible change is enough to keep me going.</p><p>Another week passes and then another, still nothing. After a month I catch him after the last period and ask him if there’s been any progress. All I get is a “We’re still looking into it.” As he quickly scurries off.</p><p>My heart begins to sink, I’m getting the feeling that nothing will be coming of this.</p><p>The sheer thought of it sends me into a panic attack, luckily school was already over for the day, so nobody notices the teary eyes, sobbing mess in the corner.</p><p>After I collect myself again, I slowly get up and smack myself on the back of the head to clear my thoughts. I’ll have to grin and bear it some more then. I’ve done it for the past years so the next three or four or whatever years won’t kill me either.</p><p>Though that doesn’t make the sting in my gut go away, the whole way there I feel sick with worry and even once I grab a book and sit down it doesn’t go away.</p><p>It’s distracting enough to keep me from dissociating into my fantasies. On top of that my thoughts keep circling back to the fact that the system that’s supposed to help people like me has failed me spectacularly.</p><p>Even after half an hour of trying my hardest to think of something else I still can’t seem to push these thoughts out of my mind.</p><p>I look up from my book and sigh, maybe I’ll have to find something else?</p><p>My eyes wander around the library, books as far as I can see, a couple tables with computers on them to access the internet, the coffee machine if you need a drink and the librarians’ desk, currently abandoned.</p><p>I drop my head and stare at the floor. I’ve only ever had books to distract myself, I don’t know anything else.</p><p>When I lift my head again, my eyes immediately fall onto the computers. <em>“The internet probably has something, after all there seems to be an infinite amount of…stuff on there.”</em></p><p>I leave my chair and head over to one but as I’m about to take a seat I realize I don’t really know what I would be looking for, I’ve only ever used PCs for reading and research for school projects. I wouldn’t know where to look for distractions.</p><p>My eyes wander again, looking for something else. I’m beginning to panic, what if I can’t find anything? I can’t go on like this for long.</p><p>Then my eyes fall onto a sign pointing in the direction of the “Listening rooms”, half a dozen rooms that were recently added when the library was expanded to include a music section.</p><p>People could go there to just listen to whatever for free, or to check out the album they wanted to take out, really quiet a neat addition.</p><p>Though, I didn’t care much for them when they were new as I never had much interest in music.</p><p>Whatever was current didn’t tickle my fancy and I never bothered to look at what else is out there. Partially because I couldn’t afford it and partially because I didn’t feel the need to.</p><p>I had thought about just looking through their collection of music a couple times, there was no one forcing me to buy or borrow anything after all. At the same time, I didn’t want to take the risk of finding something I enjoyed but couldn’t afford.</p><p>Today however, I’m desperate. I want to just find something to distract me, so I make a beeline for one of the cubicle like rooms.</p><p>I carefully shut the heavy steel door behind me and flip the sign outside to occupied.</p><p>The listening rooms were all really small, barely 21 square feet. Each one came equipped with a computer, a chair, a pair of headphones and a pair of loudspeakers.</p><p>The walls are lined with soundproofing so that no matter how far you crank up the impressive looking speakers, you won’t hear a peep outside.</p><p>I plop myself onto the chair and log in with my school account, it immediately sends me to a software that lets me browse twenty-six directories, one for each letter.</p><p>Instinctively, I click on the first one, A, it presents me with an extremely long list of subfolders, each one presumably containing all albums of a band with the name of that folder and a number appended to it.</p><p>From what I read about their music collection. I knew that most of the stuff was old, really old.</p><p>They got it from a recent effort to restore as much of the music made before the world went to shit for over half a millennium.</p><p>The numbers probably show the year the band was founded in, just about all of them are pre-2010.</p><p>I shake my head, in awe at how old this data was and still someone managed to recover so much.</p><p>I scroll down a bit to see how many there are, judging by the movement of the scroll bar, many more than I could ever listen to.</p><p>My eyes scan the list, there are so many different names and no way to tell what their music would sound like.</p><p>I furrow my eyebrows and grumble quietly. This will be quite the annoying adventure it seems.</p><p>My finger keeps flying over the scroll wheel of the mouse and my eyes keep darting over the screen. I don’t recognize any of the names.</p><p>Finally, after what must have been five minutes of scrolling, I decide to just blindly click on whatever name I see next and take a gander.</p><p>It’s some band with a, to me, unpronounceable name founded in 2008, they made three albums according to this list, each one placed in another sub folder.</p><p>Without thinking, I click on the first one and am presented with a list of .mp3 files.</p><p>I click on the first one and nothing happens, after a double click the system takes a moment to load and then starts playing that song.</p><p>I jump in my chair as I’m suddenly blasted with rap loud enough to make the table vibrate.</p><p>The moment I realize what happened I immediately click the pause button and take a deep breath. My heart is racing, my ears ring and I can feel my face heat up.</p><p>After sitting in still for a minute in eerie silence I gather my thoughts again and return my attention to the computer screen. <em>“There should be an option to change the audio output, right?”</em><br/>My eyes wander around the perimeter of the screen. At the top I spot four option, file, view, audio and settings. Clicking the audio button reveals two options, one named speaker, the other named headphones.</p><p>I click on the second option and the checkmark moves from speakers to headphones.</p><p>Carefully, I slip them onto my head and adjust the headband.</p><p>At the bottom there’s a slider for volume, it’s currently at 95%. I lower it to just 10% and cautiously click play again.</p><p>The song immediately resumes playing and the volume is much more bearable.</p><p>I slowly nod. “Hmmmmm.” <em>“Much better.” </em>I think to myself and listen to the song for a while.</p><p>As I expected rap isn’t something, I enjoy too much so I stop playback and return back to the list of bands.</p><p><em>“There must be a better way to search this?”</em> I move the cursor over the other three options. File just reveals several playback options and an option to view file details. View happens to be what I was looking for, it’s currently set to basic but there’s an option to list by genre, age and the date of publication as well as an advanced option. For now, I pick the genre view. The software freezes for a couple seconds before presenting me with a different list of folders, this time it’s a long list of genres with very coarse definitions. All of rock is shoved into one folder, just like rap, hip-hop, electronic music, metal and few more.</p><p>I already know that I won’t care about most of this as I’ve heard it on the radio.</p><p>After some contemplation I decide to first check out rock. Upon clicking the folder I’m presented with an array of subgenres to choose from.</p><p>I poke around a few of them for a while but again none of the songs catch my attention for more than a minute, but I find myself enjoying them more than rock.</p><p>Then I happen upon a folder called hard rock. I grin a little at trying to imagine what that sounds like, then decide to give it a shot.</p><p>There isn’t terribly much in this folder and after skimming the list I get stuck on a band called Lordi.</p><p>I’m presented with a list of almost a dozen albums. I blindly click the one that happens to be under my cursor and let the computer play a random song from it.</p><p>I freeze as the headphones suddenly scream “hard rock hallelujah” into my ear accompanied by harsh drums and guitars.</p><p>Yet I’m not appalled, rather I’m intrigued.</p><p>I keep listening and by the two-minute mark I’m slightly bobbing my head left and right to the rhythm of the song.</p><p>Once the song ends, I just let the computer keep going and lean back in my chair, intently listening.</p><p>Much to my surprise the album manages to keep my attention for just about the entire duration of it.</p><p>I immediately go back to the album list and start playback of the next one.</p><p>This one sadly doesn’t captivate me as much as the previous one and I find myself clicking through the list of bands yet again. There are a few that tickle my fancy as well, but none manage to actually hit the mark for me.</p><p>Eventually I go back to the root directory and stare at the list again.</p><p>I remember that metal is supposed to be rock but even harsher and since the harsher rock genres wound up sounding better to me, I figure I should check it out.</p><p>The list of metal genres is even more extensive than the list of rock genres. Again, I skim it for a moment and decide to go for the first one that catches my attention.</p><p>Death metal happens to be the one I end up going for and after a quick scan of the band names I pick Infant Annihilator. There are only three albums to choose from and when I click play on one of them, I find my ears assaulted by deathly growls, ear shattering drum beats and shredding guitars.</p><p>Entirely overwhelmed by the onslaught of sounds I reflexively click pause and take a moment to process what I just heard.</p><p>I give it another go but can’t find myself enjoying it. There’s probably lyrics in there and all that but I can’t make it out at all, it seems I found a genre that’s too chaotic for me.</p><p>After returning to the genre list I look for similar ones, I wasn’t completely put off by that style of music just yet.</p><p>There happens to be another genre named almost the same, symphonic death metal.</p><p>Without a second thought I click the folder and glance over the list of bands presented to me.</p><p>A band called thousand leaves catches my attention, they have one of the longest lists of albums I’ve seen yet, a grand total of seventeen.</p><p>Overwhelmed with choice I take a moment to take my pick.</p><p>Early years of sorrow catches my attention first and shuffle picks track number eight for playback, the title is Last Serenade.</p><p>The song immediately starts off almost as harsh as Infant Annihilator, but something feels different. I can’t put a finger on it, but something makes me like this song a lot more.</p><p>Much to my surprise, this album also apparently comes with lyrics synched to the lyrics, a first.</p><p>They happen to help out greatly as half the time I’m not even sure if the lyrics are in English.</p><p>This song is the first one that I find myself enjoying very much, almost as much as reading books, even if the enjoyment I derive from it is slightly different.</p><p>I end up completely losing track of time as I listen to the entirety of the album and when the last song fades to silence, I sit there for a moment, electrified.</p><p>I want more. I quickly jump on to the next album, Black Cloak Skeleton and start listening to it. It’s just as good as Early Years of Sorrow.</p><p>Time flies by as I sit there bobbing up and down in my chair to the rhythm of the music. Something I’ve barely ever done before.</p><p>The clock hits six pm and I decide that this should be enough of this band for the day and begin to poke around for other bands to listen to.</p><p>Melodic Death Metal appears to be a goldmine of good music. In little time I discover almost a handful of bands I really enjoy.</p><p>Around seven pm I decide to take a look at one last band. I’ve just reached the bottom of the list and scroll back to the top.</p><p>My eyes immediately fall onto a band called Arch Enemy. I had seen that name when I first opened this folder and already felt intrigued but skipped them for the time being.</p><p>I pause for just a moment to decide whether I want to go for it or not.</p><p>It doesn’t take me long to go for it, after all what else would I do?<br/>I’m presented with an average amount of albums, once again I pick one at random and then let shuffle pick a song for me.</p><p>This time it happens to be City of the Dead from Khaos Legions.</p><p>At first, I wonder if the song even started playing as I sit there in complete silence but the bar at the bottom of the screen is clearly moving.</p><p>Then, suddenly I’m someone starts shredding a guitar and drums hammer away in the background.</p><p>I nod slowly. <em>“So far so good.”</em></p><p>Half a minute later the vocalist joins in and I feel Goosebumps spread over my arms. The lyrics are just barely eligible.</p><p>The mix of instruments and the vocalists’ style of screaming the lyrics at me sends shiver after shiver down my back.</p><p>I catch myself holding my breath in awe, the music consumes my mind. I hear and feel nothing else. I’m entirely preoccupied with listening.</p><p>With every line the lyrics begin to describe me more and more.</p><p>Children play between the stones<br/>Laughter echoes from the walls<br/>Their cradle of innocent joy<br/>Will be their grave of sorrow</p><p>An intense shiver runs down my back and I feel tears well up in my eyes. I’ve been feeling like this will be my fate, trapped at home until my untimely demise.</p><p>I wasn’t prepared for this at all and just barely force myself to focus on the music again.</p><p>No safety, no dignity, no light, no justice<br/>No future, no home and nowhere to go<br/>Their misery, frustration, anger, depression<br/>Sadness, madness will drown in hatred</p><p>The tears immediately come back but something else stirs in me as well.</p><p>I sob and sniffle, I’ve been a sad shell of a human for so long, I have never felt safe, there hasn’t been a light in my life for so long and justice has failed me too.</p><p>When the song fades out not much later. I pause and sit still and stare at the screen for a while, reflecting on my entire life.</p><p>I crack a weak smile and laugh quietly. Why have I kept going for so long? My life had no point, ever. My existence is meaningless.</p><p>I’ve longed for nonexistence for so long without realizing it.</p><p>But I could never go through with it. Something in me forbids it.</p><p>I shake my head to rid myself of these dark thoughts and click on play again to see what I’ll be listening to next.</p><p>Yesterday is dead and Gone is the title and it starts off much calmer and slower than the last one.</p><p>I’m about to click off the song when the vocalist joins in, screaming about having picked a fight against the tide, resisting his enemies till the day she dies.</p><p>The lyrics captivate me like none before, again I feel something stir in me and a sliver of a smile creeps across my face.</p><p>There is no sacred place<br/>No perfect world<br/>Your head is home<br/>Freedom in your heart<br/>Be strong<br/>Take this chance<br/>Make your way<br/>A better future calls</p><p>My smile turns into a grin.</p><p><em>“How could I go so long without standing up for myself?”</em> I ask myself.</p><p><em>“Why am I so afraid of my father? All he ever does is talk, talk, talk and talk. The people at school too. They only ever talk trash, laugh at me and point fingers.”</em><br/>I look up at the ceiling and take deep breath. How come a single song is suddenly able to make me stand up for myself? How can it suddenly give me the courage to stand up to my abusers?</p><p><em>“Next time my father talks shit…”</em> I imagine my father yelling verbal abuse at me but this time I don’t feel scared, I slap him across the face with all my might and him collapsing on the floor.</p><p>With a smug grin I nod to myself. <em>“Yes, yes that’s what I’ll do.”</em><br/>I imagine several more instances of him yelling at me and me finally standing up for myself and defending my sorry ass.</p><p>When the album comes to an end and the music goes away, I snap out of my trance. <em>“But remember, violence begets violence.” </em>While I want to retaliate, I should also keep in mind that just because he’s not been violent yet doesn’t mean he won’t ever be, and he’s come close to physical violence before.</p><p>
  <em>“It’s probably smarter to stick to verbal punches…it certainly won’t be as satisfying but alas…”</em>
</p><p>I look at the clock, it’s almost eight. <em>“Where did time go?”</em></p><p>I put away the headphones and log out, time to head back. At least I won’t be afraid today.</p><p>After picking up my bag, I head out the door and make my way to the exit. On the way there I remember a book I wanted to sneak home today. By now it’s become sort of a routine for me, I casually walk past the rows of shelves. Open bag in one hand, the other sliding along the backs of the books.<br/>As soon as my fingers pass the book I want I quickly slide it out and in one fluid motion slip it into my bag and close it in just a few seconds.<br/>Then I make a beeline for the exit, nod at the librarian and head out.<br/>On my way home I’m in full on autopilot mode as I mentally prepare myself for the shit show that is bound to go down the moment I step through the door.</p><p>I only snap out of my thoughts when I walk around the corner onto the driveway, my dad’s car parked at the end of it.</p><p>With shaky hands but a determined mind I put the key into the lock, turn it around and step inside, throw my shoes into the shoe rack and hang my jacket onto the railing of the stairs.</p><p>Just as I’m putting my backpack aside. I hear my father’s voice from somewhere behind me, he says something along the lines of “Ah there she is again, the useless trash dares show its face once again. How did my favourite amoeba spend her day today?”</p><p>I frown and sigh, take off my shoes and head up the stairs without a word. I want to verbally retaliate but my mouth doesn’t want to obey me.</p><p>“Hey, I’m talking to you, you deaf mute.” He pauses for a moment, then says something towards my mom. “Did we ever get her tested for extra chromosomes? Surely no one can be this retarded.”</p><p>All his words solicit from me is a weak shake of my head as I arrive at the top of the stairs.</p><p>Just as I’m about to head into my room I hear him say: “You know what, we should have aborted her. The world would be a better place and wouldn’t have to waste so much money on someone so useless.”</p><p>In the spur of the moment I turn around and yell: “I wish so too, sadly abortions aren’t legal for 185-month-old babies last time I checked.”</p><p>“Oh, hey she does speak, maybe she isn’t retarded after all.” He yells back, then adds: “Doesn’t mean you can’t do it yourself.”</p><p>“Why don’t you come up here and do it yourself, you’re all words no actions. I’m getting a hunch that you’re just a coward. I recommend you grow a pair for once.” I reply and immediately regret it as he yells “What the fuck did you just say to me you little shit?”</p><p>
  <em>“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Should not have said that.”</em>
</p><p>I hear him stomp up the stairs and seconds later he’s in my face, staring down at me with fury in his eyes. “All words no actions you say?” He snarls. “I’ll give you some actions alright.”</p><p>A fraction of a second later a sharp pain explodes on the right half of my face. I feel myself hitting the wall and falling to the ground.</p><p>“I really hope for you that you learn to know when to speak.” He stomps back downstairs and leaves me in a pile on the floor.</p><p>Still feeling numb, I get back up and stumble into my room and collapse, half on the bed, half on the ground. “<em>Did he really just hit me?” </em></p><p>My brain refuses to acknowledge what just happened and I wind up lying on my bed like that until I fall asleep.</p><p>When I wake up, I find myself fully in the bed and under the sheets, still in my clothes from yesterday. My mom must have come in during the night and put me to bed properly.</p><p>I stumble in the bathroom on the upper floor and look into the mirror. My entire right cheek is bright red, the skin burns and touching it feels like poking a needle into me.</p><p>I break down in front of the mirror, crying, screaming and sobbing all at once. I never imagined he was capable of this. I could bear the verbal abuse, but this is too much.</p><p>I wish I could cease to exist.</p><p>I wish my suffering would end this instant.</p><p>For the first time in my life all I want is to die.</p><p>I hold onto the sink and slowly pull myself up. <em>“But how…”</em> I open the cabinet above the sink, it’s full of cosmetics, creams, lotions and what have you.</p><p>On the top row I spot a few bottles of medication, I’m not sure what it is, so I grab the closest one and quickly skim the packaging. <em>“Cough syrup.” </em>I drop it into the sink and take the next one down.</p><p><em>“Sleeping pills. Good.” </em>I shakily open the cardboard box, take out the container and package insert.</p><p>Before I commit to overdosing, I take a look at the packaging again to make sure it’s actually capable of killing.</p><p>“Large doses may be toxic, never take more than two pills at once.”</p><p><em>“Very good.” </em>I nod to myself and open to container, then dump the contents of it onto my hand.</p><p>A dozen odd oval pills. My ticket out of this fucking hellhole.</p><p>I throw them into my mouth and tilt my head back. Swallowing the pills hurts and some get stuck in my throat.</p><p>I cough and retch a couple times, then force myself to drink some water from the tap to dislodge them.</p><p>I look up into the mirror, stare into my own eyes and pray that this is the last time I get to see myself.</p><p>Moments later I feel my stomach grumble, a stinging pain radiates from it.</p><p>
  <em>“It’s working.”</em>
</p><p>The pain quickly grows, only a minute later I can’t stand upright anymore. I’ve never felt so sick.</p><p>
  <em>“It hurts…so much…”</em>
</p><p>I groan and gasp for air. I feel like throwing up.</p><p>
  <em>“But if this is what it takes.”</em>
</p><p>My entire body spasms as my stomach tries to empty itself.</p><p>
  <em>“Then I’ll gladly take it.”</em>
</p><p>Again, I need to force myself to not throw up. As I lie there on the bathroom tiles, twitching like a dying fish, I crack the first smile in a long time.</p><p>
  <em>“Soon, soon it’ll all be over.”</em>
</p><p>The taste of stomach acid begins to fill my mouth.</p><p>
  <em>“Oh no…”</em>
</p><p>I just barely to keep my stomach contents down but I have a feeling that the next stomach cramp is going to be too much. I get up on all fours and crawl to the toilet. Halfway there my stomach contracts again and I feel a small amount of liquid push up my throat. It burns and the taste nearly makes me throw up then and there. Just as I lift the toilet lid my stomach violently cramps and sends its content flying out of my mouth. I keep retching for another minute before my body finally settles down. I feel hot and cold at the same time, a strand of my hair sticks to my forehead, my arms and legs barely keep me upright. Then everything begins to spin around me. The next thing I see is the side of the toilet, then my head crashes into the tiles and I black out. I’m not so gently shook awake. I’m lying on my back, my mother kneeling next to me with her hands on my shoulders, violently shaking me while yelling my name. Everything feels so surreal, as if it were a dream. I slowly sit up and rub my temples, my head hurts like crazy and I feel like I might faint again. My mom helps me up and supports me as I wobble back to my room. She places me on my bed, then runs downstairs to get whatever.</p><p>I lie down and stare at the ceiling.</p><p>
  <em>“Can’t even kill myself right.”</em>
</p><p>A single tear rolls from my left eye. Some five minutes later my mother is back with a glass of water, she looks legitimately worried.</p><p>I take a few small sips to wash away the taste of stomach acid, then put the glass onto my night stand. I feel my mother stare at me, so I turn my head and lock eyes with her. I can see the helplessness and despair in her eyes. She just witnessed her daughter trying to kill herself but still she can’t muster any words and some part of me already knows that no actions will follow. I frown and lie down, then bury my face in my pillow and lie still. I can feel her standing beside my bed for some time, then she leaves, probably to clean the mess in the bathroom. Eventually she heads downstairs, I hear her make a call, probably to the school to inform them that I’m sick or something.</p><p>
  <em>“What if it’s my father?”</em>
</p><p>I ask myself.</p><p>The rest of the day I spend lying in bed, staring at the pillow or ceiling, trying to think about nothing.</p><p>At some point my father comes home but for once he leaves me alone, maybe because my mother said something to him? The small spark of hope is only temporary as I hear him say something about me simulating being sick as he passes my door. <em>“Great mom lied to him…at least it got him to leave me alone for a day.”</em><br/>Sometime around midnight I simply black out and sleep through the rest of the night.</p><p>The next morning, I still feel sluggish, but I also can’t stand another hour in these walls, so I pack my shit and head off to school feeling like hot garbage.</p><p>After school I go back to hiding in the library, I’ve mostly recovered from the after effects of the sleeping pills and nobody suspects a thing.</p><p>I mindlessly sit in a corner my eyes flying across the pages of another new book the library got earlier this week but I’m not actually reading the words. My mind is much too foggy to process anything properly. I’m not even sure what I did five minutes ago.</p><p>At some point I look up from the book that I wasn’t actually reading to take glance at the clock.</p><p>It’s just past five pm, it feels like it should be ten pm.</p><p>I shake my head, rub my temples and groan. I wonder how long it’ll be before I recover or if this is just my body slowly giving out and maybe I’ll just die tonight. I would appreciate that.</p><p>I grab my bottle of water from my backpack and empty the last ten odd ounces (300ml).</p><p>The water feels nice and refreshing and once I put the bottle down, I can feel my head clearing a little. <em>“Dang, seems like I won’t be passing in my sleep tonight then…”</em> I crack a weak smile and rest my head on my palm. I had turned into such a hot mess.</p><p>In this brief moment of clarity, I decide to go listen to some more music, maybe people screaming about bloody murder will shake me out of the fog.</p><p>I grab my back and trudge to the listening rooms, the first few steps feel heavy and sluggish, as if my legs don’t want to obey me.</p><p>With a sigh I plop my behind into the chair, I never thought walking a hundred feet could feel so exhausting.</p><p>As I log into my student account, I remember that I hadn’t yet closed the door so, with a heavy sigh I get up again, pull the door closed and flip the sign outside.</p><p>As I’m sitting down again the computer finishes loading and welcomes me back to the folder I had left off at. I check the audio settings to make sure it didn’t change back to the speakers.</p><p>As expected, the computer remembered what settings I chose last time.</p><p>I slip on the headphones and glance at the track list in front of me. I figure I’ll listen to this album once more, just to see if it touches me as much as it did yesterday.</p><p>I click play and lean back into the chair, I’ll just let it play out, listen to it the way that was intended.</p><p>Somehow, I already managed to learn a good chunk of the lyrics yesterday so for the chorus I can silently scream along.</p><p>By the second song, Yesterday is dead and gone, I’ve already got Goosebumps on my arms and shivers running down my back.</p><p>Reaching for the light beyond<br/>We will rise through the dark again<br/>Ready to fight for what we believe to be right<br/>Yesterday is dead and gone<br/>Rattling the chains - shaking the cage<br/>Heed our war cry<br/>Let there be no doubt - we want out<br/>This is reckoning day</p><p>These lines stir something in me yet again, the rebellious feeling from yesterday is back again.</p><p>
  <em>“Wonder where that went so quickly yesterday…”</em>
</p><p>I don’t get to dwell on that thought for long as the music rips me out it nearly immediately with the next chorus.</p><p>The rest of the album flies by, each song making me contort my face into anger filled grimaces while I silently scream at the top of my lungs.</p><p>I don’t dare make any actual noise out of fear of being heard though.</p><p>By the end of it I’m red in the face my arms feel weak from being strained for the entire duration of the album.</p><p>I take a moment to take breath and calm down. <em>“What is this, what has this music awoken in me. I’ve never been like this.”</em> I look at my arms in disbelief, is this really still me or did I get replaced by someone else?</p><p>
  <em>“No matter, I hope this new self doesn’t get me into deep shit again.”</em>
</p><p>I go back to the album list and think about which one to listen to next.</p><p><em>“Except, I for once talked back…like I should have ages ago. I finally didn’t let him push me around all willy nilly.”</em><br/>The name Will to Power catches my attention and I put my thoughts aside for a moment.</p><p>As per usual I start by listening to a random song and letting shuffle take me through the album.</p><p>It sounds like there’s been a change in vocalists between these two, not that I mind the new one sounds just as good yet different in some ways.</p><p>The album captivates me just as much as the previous one. Many of the songs empower my feeling of rebelliousness even more. That is when I get to a song called Reasons to Believe.</p><p>There's a scar on your heart<br/>But your journey's just begun<br/>A distant light that's worth the fight<br/>The story's far from done<br/>Stop hurting yourself<br/>Those tired sores have nothing more to bleed<br/><br/>Self-hatred I know it well it's dragging you down<br/>Listen to me now<br/><br/>There's a reason to believe again<br/>There's a reason to go on<br/>Always keep on fighting my friend<br/>There's a reason to believe</p><p>Intense chills run down my back and my hairs stand on end like never before. <em>“I did not know music could talk to me like that…”</em> A tear rolls from the corner of my eye.</p><p>I press pause to take a moment to regain a grip on my emotions.</p><p>I feel like I want to rip into my father yet again and if he gets violent again, I’ll just punch him back harder, I’ll make him pay for what he did to me.</p><p><em>“No, no, no Arya</em><em>. Calm</em><em> down</em><em>. Violence begets violence and this is a fight you won’t win. Even if you beat him to bloody pulp, you’ll find yourself in jail in no time.”</em> With a few deep breaths I manage to calm most of my anger down.</p><p><em>“Though, would jail actually be worse than this? They’ve got books from what I read.” </em>I laugh to myself and shake my head. <em>“Silly me, I’ll keep it to being a rebel in my thoughts, at least now I got something to build me back up if I need to.”</em><br/>I press play again and I’m right back to voicelessly screaming along.</p><p>Soon after the song draws to a close and fittingly the next one is titled Dreams of Retribution.</p><p>It starts off comparatively calm and gives me a moment to come down from my high of anger and hatred. But in under a minute it builds back up into what I had already gotten used to.</p><p>In a place so dark that demons fear<br/>I'm rotting away, year after year<br/>You're on the outside, you're laughing at me<br/>One day, you'll pay, you will see</p><p>A grin grows on my lips, that last line shall be what I’ll live by now.</p><p>While I already felt powerful yesterday, today it feels different. While my confidence was shattered into a thousand pieces yesterday, today music has patched it back together and somehow it came out stronger than before.</p><p>Another song or two later the album draws to a close and I find myself sitting in silence again.</p><p>I wonder if I could somehow look for similar styles of music, I vaguely remember reading something about a feature like that. If that doesn’t work, I don’t mind going back to listening to this band, but I don’t want to go through all their stuff too quick.</p><p>I click on the view option again and go to the advanced tab. It opens up a new window with lots of options, one in particular catches my attention. It’s titled “Search for similar…”</p><p>With a swift click it opens up another search window containing a drop-down menu with a list of all artists by the look of it.</p><p>I scroll down to Arch Enemy and select them. Next I’m presented with a second drop down menu.</p><p>I could either go and search now or apparently narrow it down more by selecting a second band.</p><p>I figure it couldn’t hurt to add another one. After much scrolling I finally arrive at Thousand Leaves and add them to the search.</p><p>Next the software prompts me to a select a search style, I can choose and, or and neither.</p><p>A little question mark appears next to my cursor and I click on the “and” option.</p><p>The option lights up dark blue and a little text box appears.</p><p>“Searches for Artists matching all selected Artists.”</p><p>I move the cursor to “or” and click it.</p><p>“Searches for Artists matching any selected Artists.”</p><p><em>“I see.” </em>I select and again and hit the search button.</p><p>A loading bar appears and quickly crawls across the screen. Only a minute later I’m presented with the results. A list of only a dozen or so bands.</p><p>Two of them are the ones I originally added to the search the rest looks to all be unique.</p><p>I take my time to pick what band to check out next, but then settle at the bottom of the list, Undead Corporation.</p><p>I’m presented with another vast list of albums many of them with titles in a language I don’t recognize. They also appear to be sorted in a different way, neither alphabetically nor by date.</p><p>I check the view option again and note that under “sort by…” it’s set to most relevant.</p><p>That should mean the topmost album is the one I want to listen to.</p><p>神速 sits at the top of the list, followed by 暴君.</p><p>I give神速 a shot first. Luckily the titles are in English again.</p><p>I let shuffle lead the way again and it picks Belial Drive as the first song to play.</p><p>The start is almost a bit boring to me with just a sole piano jingling away but then suddenly it’s joined by drums and vocals all at once and with such force that I’m left stunned for a moment.</p><p>The vocalist screams barely eligible broken English into my ear as the drums hammer away at speeds, I didn’t think were possible.</p><p>They keep it up for just over a minute when a female vocalist joins them.</p><p>While I was unsure whether I enjoyed this before I’m now fully convinced. Her voice sends chills down my spine like never before. The combination with the other vocalist screaming his lungs out just sounds perfect to me.</p><p>Much like yesterday, I listen to the entire album in a sort of trance, not moving much, if at all. Only taking in the raw, feral screaming and the roaring guitars and drums.</p><p>At the end of it I’m left speechless, every single song on this album felt perfect to me. It all worked so well together, I think I’ve found my personal epitome of music.</p><p>“Woah…” I mutter and lean forward to take a close look at the track list.</p><p>As I stare at the screen, I remember that this band has a bunch more to offer and I immediately go back to the album list.</p><p>The second entry, 暴君, should be another close match according to the software so I don’t waste any time and immediately begin listening, not even bothering to let shuffle choose a random song for me.</p><p>Straight away I’m blasted with guttural screaming and thrashing drums.</p><p>I still jump a little, though I should have expected it. Then again, most songs so far started off calm, this one just got right into it.<br/>That initial scare is forgotten about just seconds later as the music enthrals me all over again.</p><p>This album happens to be not too dissimilar from the previous one and I can’t wait to get into the rest of what undead corporation has to offer.</p><p>By the end of it I’m exhausted all over again from letting loose. I look at the time and notice that it’s approaching half past seven pm. <em>“Time to pack I guess…after I listen to a few more songs.” </em></p><p>I go back through the albums I’ve listened to today and take them for another spin.</p><p>After some fifteen minutes I really have to get going, I still have to find me a book to take home.</p><p>As I’m scrounging through the fantasy section, I notice a book I’ve read a while ago.</p><p>I’ve read a few similar to it but that one was special. A portal between worlds opens, letting fairy tale creatures into the world of humans, it starts of peaceful enough when it’s only fairies, unicorns and other happy jolly harmless, to humans, beings.</p><p>Eventually dragons discover the portal too and make their way into the world of humans.</p><p>This leads to lots of tension as humanity feels threatened by them, even though they don’t have any ill intentions.</p><p>At some point a few humans decide to properly show the dragons that they aren’t welcome by stealing a destroying a dozen eggs.</p><p>After the first few they get caught, the dragons, being reasonable, capture them and request that justice be severed one way or another.</p><p>Humanity decides to not do that and instead attack the dragons for holding those bad people hostages.</p><p>This finally pushes the dragons over the edge, and they retaliate in full force.</p><p>This ends badly. Very badly.</p><p>For the humans.</p><p>The dragons are superior to them in every way, even a hundred humans aren’t a match for a single dragon and in the ensuing massacre tens of thousands lose their life and many more lose their home, family and possessions.</p><p>The first time I read it I didn’t enjoy it too much. I felt the author was being too brutal, especially in his detailed description of hordes of dragons ravaging through the lands, tearing everything human in their path to shreds.</p><p>But right now, it fits my mood all too well, so I quickly snag it from the shelf and drop it into my bag.</p><p>On the way home I’m preoccupied with thinking about how I would love to be a dragon from that story, let my rage flow free without fear of repercussions.</p><p>As I step through the door I snap out of my thoughts and back to reality, I can hear my dad watching TV in the living room. He yells some dumb fucking comment that I don’t even fully hear over the noise of the TV but it’s already enough to make my pulse skyrocket. I’m itching for a fight but just barely manage to not say or do anything and instead put my jacket aside and head upstairs to the tune of him yelling. “Yea, yea, go hide in your room again. Hide in your hole like the rat you are.”</p><p>I grit my teeth and grip the handle of my bag tight. <em>“Quiet now Arya. Don’t say anything, he isn’t worth it.” </em>As soon as I shut the door to my room behind me, I release a low growl angrily chuck my backpack onto my bed.</p><p>I jump after my backpack, the bed moans and creaks as my entire weight slams into the mattress.</p><p>Quickly, I dig through my bag for the book and immediately begin reading. I don’t think I’ll leave my room today anymore. <em>“Wouldn’t want to risk it.”</em><br/>I’ve never quite enjoyed a book as much as this one, especially once things get heated, I find myself so deep in the world created by the author, someone could easily abduct me, and I wouldn’t notice.</p><p>Sadly, that also means I read through it much more quickly than usual and by the time it hits eleven pm I’m already done with the book.</p><p>After a quick look at my alarm I figure it’s time to try and sleep. Emphasis on try, I’m still so riled up. I don’t think I’ll be sleeping any time soon.</p><p>I put the book aside and throw my bag off the bed, then throw off my clothes and crawl under the sheets. With how active my imagination has been I’ll just spend the time till I drift off in my little fantasy world.</p><p>I shut my eyes, but my vision doesn’t turn black. Instead I’m transported into the alternate world of my thoughts.</p><p>A smile grows on my face I stroll through the imaginary woods, on the lookout for its inhabitants.</p><p>Over the next half an hour I can feel tiredness slowly creep in, it turns night in my thoughts.</p><p>Eventually I drift off into the realm of dreams but today I don’t notice. I still find myself in the same imaginary forest. Wandering about with the dragon that joined me while I was still awake.</p><p>At some point he starts growing hungry and heads off to hunt. Leaving me to my own devices for the time being.</p><p>For once I don’t mind being on my own in this forest, I usually feel a bit creeped out on my own in here. But today I’m feeling particularly fearless.</p><p>I wander about, looking at the stars, the undergrowth and the trees around me.</p><p>Come to think of it, I haven’t had this close of a look at this forest yet. It appears to be resembling the forest that encircles my hometown pretty accurately.</p><p>During my stroll I suddenly notice a humanoid figurine off to my side. I’ve only rarely seen humans in my dreams, if ever so this immediately piques my curiosity.</p><p>I sneak around it to get a good view of its face. The low light makes it pretty hard to make out any details but with some squinting I can make out just enough details.</p><p>For a moment my heart sinks as I realize that it’s my father. “<em>What is he doing in my dreams? He’s got no business to be here, ever.”</em></p><p>My fear and worries are washed away immediately when I remind myself that this is a dream, I’m free to do whatever in here.</p><p>I grin and lick my lips. <em>“This will be fun.” </em><br/>I step through the bushes that obscure me, until then my father hadn’t moved or said a thing.</p><p>The moment he notices me he starts yelling at me about running away from home and how he’ll have to drag me back now and that I’ll regret every living minute from now on.</p><p>“I don’t think so.” I retort and take a confident step towards him. <em>“I’ll make YOU regret every living minute from now on.” </em><br/>I look downward at my right hand. My fingernails had begun morphing into razor sharp claws.</p><p>He stops for just a second, taken aback by my reply, then he immediately resumes his verbal assault while stepping closer.</p><p>The moment he’s close enough I make a quick step forward and reach for his throat.</p><p>I close my fingers around his neck and lift him off the ground, I can feel my claws cut through his skin and blood seeps through my fingers.</p><p>I tighten my grip, very slowly.</p><p>His eyes widen in panic as he begins to grasp for air and tries to break free from my grasp.</p><p>I watch him with a diabolical grin on my face, it brings me an indescribable amount of pleasure to see him wiggle in my grasp like the worm that he is.</p><p>I grab his chin with my free hand and force him to look into my eyes, my claws lacerating his chin in the process. “Look at me, look at me real good, because this will be the last thing you see.”</p><p>His blood, hot and dark red, is now running down my arm, dripping off my elbow.</p><p>My father’s struggles begin to die down slowly, his gasps for air becoming more and more irregular.</p><p>Soon he’ll expire, soon.</p><p>Suddenly a barbed tentacle bursts forth from his mouth and wraps around my arm. Its barbs strip the flesh off my bones. I scream in agony and drop him to the ground.</p><p>I clutch the bit of my forearm that remains and stare at the exposed bone in disbelief. It even ripped off my hand.</p><p>Behind me I hear him laughing and coughing. “You can’t escape me, I am inevitable.”</p><p>His laughter is suddenly joined by another and another and another.</p><p>Suddenly there’s dozens of voices laughing at me from the same mouth.</p><p>Slowly, I turn around, already fearful of what will await me.</p><p>He lies on the floor, blood squirting from the cuts on his face and neck. The tentacle that sprouted from his mouth flails about, trying to reach me.</p><p>Another one bursts from his mouth, then another. His fingers turn into thin long tentacles too.</p><p>They all grasp for me as he slowly stands back up.</p><p>I run off into the forest, the agonizing pain my arm is causing me all but forgotten.</p><p>Tears run down my face as I scream for help but the only one that answers is my father with an ever more hideous laughter.</p><p>I look over my shoulder to see where he is only to nearly trip over my feet in shock.</p><p>He’s turned into a formless horror of barbed tentacles, the only thing that remains of his human shape is his face, floating in the middle of hundreds of barbed tentacles. Some he uses as legs, but most of them reach towards me. “Come to daddy Arya, come to me.”</p><p>A scream of terror leaves my lungs and I run as fast as my legs will carry me.</p><p>He stays hot on my heels, I can feel his tentacles brush against my back, ripping skin and flesh out of me.</p><p>I keep running, whinging every time his tentacles touch me. Tears stream down my face as I beg for help from anyone or anything.</p><p>I run for fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, two hours, I’ve lost track of time completely.</p><p>Light and dark flash by as if the days were passing in minutes.</p><p>My legs hurt more than even my arm, my back is covered in hundreds of gashes and blood is streaming down my back, burning on my skin like hot acid.</p><p>I want to give up, just stop running. Give in to this hideous abomination, let it tear me apart.</p><p>But I can’t, my legs keep moving no matter how much they hurt. I can’t escape this horror, even death can’t release me.</p><p>I’m about to go insane from the fear and pain, I’ve given up screaming and begging. I’m just holding onto the last shred of sanity I still have.</p><p>Suddenly I slam into something.</p><p>I bounce back and hit the wet, grassy ground with a dull thud.</p><p>My back explodes with a searing pain, like someone just poured molten iron all over it.</p><p>My father’s hideous laughter grows closer and closer.</p><p>And then stops.</p><p>For a second, an eerie silence befalls the forest.</p><p>Then an ear shattering scream from hell pierces my ears.</p><p>The pain is even greater than anything before. I cover my ears and turn my head to see what the fuck is happening.</p><p>I see the ball of tentacles that is my father, hovering ten feet (3,3m) off the ground. His tentacles flail around like dying fish and from his chest once was, three white claws protrude.</p><p>I look around and see that I ran full speed into the dragon that was accompanying me earlier.</p><p>He drove his claws through my father and is now holding him just outside the tentacles reach from his face.</p><p>The tentacles beat at his scales, trying to rip them off but they are completely resistant to his efforts.</p><p>The dragon grins widely and opens his mouth just wide enough to let a column of fire burst through his teeth.</p><p>The flames engulf my father and the screaming grows even louder. I feel like it’s going to make my head explode.</p><p>Somehow it seems to cause him great pain but at the same time he doesn’t seem burnt at all.</p><p>The dragon shuts his mouth again and the flames die immediately.</p><p>He brings my father closer to his mouth.</p><p>His thrashing grows even more intense, I can hear some of his tentacles crack as they whip around at supersonic speeds.</p><p>The dragon gradually opens his mouth, the tentacles try to push him away, but the dragon is much too strong.</p><p>He places my father between his teeth and begins to slowly close his mouth again.</p><p>The screaming gets interrupted by panicked breaths and sobs, the tentacles try to push the dragons mouth open or otherwise escape him but it’s all for naught.</p><p>Mercilessly the dragons’ jaws close and when they are a mere foot (30cm) apart I hear the first crunch of breaking bones.</p><p>The dragon keeps crushing my fathers’ horrific abomination of a body, every single bone in his body crack and breaks with a violent crunch. It sounds like an animal got into a trash compactor.</p><p>The dragons’ teeth cut off every single tentacle that gets between them, the pieces raining down around me.</p><p>Finally, the dragons’ mouth closes but he isn’t done with my father yet. He leisurely chews on his body and every time he opens his mouth, I can see that my father is still somehow alive.</p><p>Every time his teeth pierce through my father’s body and turn him into something more reminiscent of a paste.</p><p>Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he tilts his head back and swallows.</p><p>Somehow, I have a feeling, a hope, that my father is still alive at this point so that he can be slowly digested alive.</p><p>The dragon turns his head towards me and slowly nods.</p><p>A satisfied grin grows on my face and I sigh a sigh of relief.</p><p>I take a look around, it appears that I didn’t get far, I’m right where he left to go hunting or is this just a coincidence?</p><p>Around me the ground is sprinkled with pieces of tentacles, some of them still twitch occasionally.</p><p>I feel the dragon nudge my shoulder, I turn around to him and he lightly pokes his snout against my stripped arm.</p><p>His touch makes me wince and recoil. He wants to fix my arm and back he tells me.</p><p>Slowly, I raise my arm and hold it up to his snout. He closes his eyes and I can sense him focus on my arm.</p><p>I can watch as the muscles and blood vessels slowly regrow, the skin not far behind. Once it reaches where my wrist once was it slows down a little and then even the bones of my hand begin to regrow.</p><p>Just a minute later my arm is as good as new, I reach around to touch my back, only to notice that it’s already healed as well.</p><p>“Thank you.” I whisper to the dragon and he winks at me.</p><p>“No issue Arya.” He replies just as quietly.</p><p>I try to stand up, but my legs won’t obey me.</p><p>I look to the dragon for help, but he shakes his head. Instead he lies down around me, wrapping his body around me to protect me. I guess I should really be resting now…</p><p>I look up at the sky, it is day again, probably around mid-day.</p><p>I spend some time enjoying the peace and quiet, the closeness with the dragon and the sounds and smells of the forest.</p><p>Eventually I begin to drift off to sleep and when I open my eyes again, I find myself staring at my alarm clock.</p><p>I groan and turn away from the clock. I didn’t want to wake up yet.</p><p>Minutes later, the alarm goes off. I blindly try and smack the mute button but only end up knocking it off the table.</p><p>With a groan I roll onto the edge of the bed and blindly reach for it as it angrily beeps at me room the floor.</p><p>Eventually I feel on of its legs between my fingers and haphazardly lift it up to my face. Seven am, time to get up for school.</p><p>I turn the alarm off and sit up in bed. <em>“The fuck was that dream tonight…”</em><br/>In my half-asleep state I hadn’t processed my dream properly yet and was only now growing aware of what I had dreamt.</p><p>I shake my head and rub my eyes. <em>“No matter, time to get going.”</em><br/>I go through my usual routine of sneaking around the house, eating some breakfast, washing my face and brushing my teeth and then heading out.</p><p>I spend the entirety of my way to school and large parts of my school day mulling over my dream from last night, I just can’t let it go.</p><p>At some point the school day draws to a close, I head to the library as usual and snag me a book and sit down in my usual corner.</p><p>Around seven pm I finish my book and decide to just spend the remainder of my time with music once more. I had almost forgotten about my dream by now.</p><p>On my way over to the little cubicle, I ponder what to listen to. As I close the door behind me, I figure I’ll just choose a couple of albums and listen to them on shuffle or something.</p><p>I log in as per usual and it puts me back right where I left. Routinely, I throw on some music and begin to zone out again.</p><p>As I’m sitting there, lost in thought I once again find myself returning to the dream.</p><p>I relive parts of it once again, especially when I was getting chased. <em>“Why? Why was I so afraid?”</em></p><p>I pause for a moment and look at the ceiling, the singer of arch enemy screaming my ear about not giving up and rising to your feet even when the whole world turns away.</p><p><em>“I am the one who controls my thoughts, why would I need to fear anything in my mind? Sure, my father has power over me in the real world? But in my head, I can do with him whatever I want.”</em><br/>I recall the scenes of the dragon slowly crushing the formless horror that was my father.</p><p><em>“Besides, I have many…friends… to protect me.”</em> The mental images of a few dragons that I took a particularly strong liking to flash before me. <em>“And if that dream is anything to go off, they’ll protect me when they can.” </em></p><p>I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I focus on my fantasy world. In my mind’s eye, the usual mythical forest begins to appear out of the darkness. I take a slow look around find the same dragon from last night standing beside me.</p><p>I look up at him and a slight grin crawls over my face. <em>“Shall we have some…fun?”</em> I think to myself with a menacing undertone. He replies with a just as menacing grin.</p><p>I try to conjure the most accurate mental image of my father that I can muster, especially his face.</p><p>My heart rate immediately begins to rise, and I feel a feeling of panic rise in me, I’m about to lose focus and slip out of my trance.</p><p>I remind myself that there is nothing to fear and try my best to push my worries aside. <em>“I’ve got a dragon right next to me, he has already shown that he has no qualms about tearing my father to shreds.”</em></p><p>The sight of my mind’s eye clears up again and I find a carbon copy of my father standing before me. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought it would be the real him.</p><p>This time he appears to already know what he’s in for. He doesn’t even try to talk trash and attempts to run away.</p><p>It’s no use though I’m hot on his heels and after just a handful of steps I manage to trip him.</p><p>He stumbles and crashes face first into a nearby tree. I don’t even give him a chance to recover and grab his head. I slam it into the bark over and over and over again and until face is smashed to bloody bits. Then I throw him onto his back, spit on his face and stomp onto his chest with full force. The impact of my foot is accompanied by a satisfying crunch as his ribs break.</p><p>He’s crying, begging for mercy in between his sobs but his tears only fuel my rage more.</p><p>I grab his hand and pull him off the ground. He stumbles around and nearly falls over again.</p><p>I grab his elbow and wrist, then ram my knee into his forearm, shattering it.</p><p>His cries for help grow even more intense but they won’t be heard.</p><p><em>“In here, no one can hear you scream.”</em><br/>I watch him crawl around like a worm for a bit, listening to his pleas and whimpering.</p><p>Eventually I decide that this should be enough for the time being. I grab him by the neck and lift him up into the air. I can’t resist the urge to choke him just a little bit and watch him struggle for air.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t you think this is enough Arya?” </em></strong>I hear the dragon ask. I had almost forgotten he was still there, watching me all this time.</p><p>I shake my head. <em>“There’s not enough suffering in this world for him.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“Truth. But I’m also hungry.” </em></strong>He answers and licks his chops.</p><p><em>“Why didn’t you say that to begin with?” </em>I look up from my fathers destroyed face to see that the dragon is standing just three feet (1m) away from me.</p><p><em>“Just stay there.” </em>I grin and drop my father onto the ground only to grab his feet again, he hangs in my hands like a wet towel, flailing about like a fish out of the water. <em>“Stop struggling.” </em>I kick him in the face, probably breaking his jawbone in the process.</p><p>I swing him back and forth a couple times until I feel he’s got enough momentum.</p><p>Then, at the apex of the next swing I let go and watch him fly through the air. The dragon, already anticipating what I was planning on, is already in position to catch him with his mouth wide open.</p><p>I watch my father land on his tongue and a fraction of a second later the dragon’s mouth violently slams shut. I hear my father’s bones break and shatter as the dragon slowly chews his body into bloody pulp.</p><p>I watch with a satisfied grin on my face. <em>“Serves you right.”</em></p><p>With one swift gulp, the dragon swallows what little remains of my father. <strong><em>“Thank you, Arya. I think fearful humans might be the best tasting thing I’ve had yet.” </em></strong><br/>He grins, showing me his blood and gore covered teeth.</p><p>I laugh quietly and shake my head. <em>“As if you got to eat that many humans yet.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“Remember what book I’m from? I’ve got my fair share of experience with the taste of human flesh.”</em></strong><br/>He licks his teeth clean and sprawls out on the floor.</p><p>I sit down between his front paws and lean against his chest. <em>“Fair enough…”</em><br/>I begin to slip out of my trance and while I don’t really want to leave, I also have a hunch that it’s about time for me to go home in the real world.</p><p>When I open my eyes again, I’m staring at the computer screen again. It’s quarter to eight pm already. <em>“Just in time.” </em><br/>I listen to one more song and then log out and make my way out. Today I won’t need to sneak out a book as I didn’t get to finish the one from yesterday just yet.</p><p>As I’m heading home and already dread opening the door into my own personal hell, with no way to defend myself. I think to myself. <em>“Reality is often disappointing.” </em></p><p>Yet again, moments after I shut the front door behind me, I’m accosted by my father, but I manage to tune him out entirely.</p><p>I head upstairs and go to hide in my room for the rest of the day with only a small interruption around eleven pm. I hear my parents go to sleep and quietly sneak into the kitchen to grab me a plate of the dinner my mom made. I don’t really care for what it is as long as it sustains my body for another day.</p><p><em>“Wouldn’t it be fun if could just stop eating and slowly wither away? The most effortless way of dying.” </em>I sigh and sit down at the table. It’s not like I haven’t tried that already. Sadly, my body is much too good at forcing me to consume enough nutrients. I can go for a day without food sure but after that every hour becomes an agonizing struggle.</p><p>I scarf down my dinner as fast as I can head back upstairs to go to bed.</p><p>As I’m lying under the sheets, about to fall asleep I find myself half scared of what I’m going to dream of and half excited. My thoughts keep me awake for quite a while longer.</p><p>At some point I simply black out and only wake up when the alarm clock shakes me awake.</p><p>I attempt to recall my dreams but there’s only blurry images that don’t make any sense to me.</p><p><em>“Maybe it’s better that way.”</em><br/>I go about my day as per usual, though I catch myself zoning out much more than usual and every time my imagination tends to become violent. It’s usually not as bad as yesterday but still I find myself enjoying the imagined suffering of others.</p><p>Around seven pm I end up listening to music again and let myself fully zone out once again.</p><p>This time I torment my father in slightly different ways, though in the end he’s just a bloody mess on the ground with dozens of broken bones that gets fed to the same dragon from yesterday.<br/>Eventually it’s time for me to head home and just like yesterday I wish that the real world were just a bit more like my fantasies. Once I get home, I tune out my father and hide in my room till he goes to bed to sneak down and eat some dinner.<br/>That night I end up experiencing my daydreams from my father’s perspective. I get to feel all the agonizing pain and humiliation as I throw him around like a wet tissue.</p><p>Somehow all his pain and fear doesn’t affect me directly though, instead I feel myself deriving pleasure from it.</p><p>I wake up just as the dragon crushes my father’s body between his jaws.</p><p>A look at the alarm tells me it’s time to get ready once again.</p><p>Yet again this day is more of the same, I’m starting to give up fighting my tendency to zone out. I don’t know why I even tried to begin with.</p><p><em>“But if I don’t pay attention to class my grades will take a hit…”</em> I think to myself. <em>“Then again it’s not like my father cares and my mother has told me that I don’t have to do this for her sake. So why am I even trying. I guess it gives me a purpose or something.” </em><br/>With my mind set on going a little easier on the studying front and giving myself more “me” time the rest of the school day passes too.</p><p>In the library I pass up the history book that would be relevant for the current periods in favour of another novel.</p><p>Around half past six I find myself not enjoying the novel too much anymore and begrudgingly decide to put it back again. The first book in a while that I couldn’t finish.</p><p>Instead I go to listen to some more music, though I haven’t actually been listening to it for the last two days it still makes great background noise to zone out to.</p><p>Today I figure I might try my hand at some other people that have been less than nice to me, specifically that one cunt from my class that loves to bully me. It hasn’t affected me too much though, whatever he has in store for me doesn’t measure up to what my father has been working on for years.</p><p>Once again, I conjure up a mental image of him, I take good look at his tubby self, not quite overweight but not thin either. His greasy hair sticks to his scalp and reflects the sun a little.</p><p>I never understood how he could be the popular guy in class, at best he was average looking and his personality I could only describe as vapid.</p><p>I shake my head and punch him in his stupid face as hard as I can. He falls backwards like a board.</p><p>He tries to pick himself up again, but I take another swing at him immediately.</p><p>He drops onto the mossy ground, clearly out cold.</p><p><em>“Ugh, how boring.” </em>I wait for him to wake up again and in the meantime make some small talk with the dragon. It’s been the same one for the last four days for some reason, usually the others also make an appearance regularly.</p><p>Eventually my peer wakes up and tries to stand up once more, though he is clearly concussed.</p><p>I get on top of his chest, jamming my knee into his sternum and begin to choke him.</p><p>I watch the life slowly fade from his eyes as his face turns all possible shades of red and eventually purple.</p><p>When he finally passes out, I let go of his neck and stand up. <em>“Hmmm, what else shall we try today…?” </em>I rest my chin on my fist and furrow my eyebrows.</p><p>A quite devious thought crosses my mind. I’m almost afraid of myself for coming up with it quite frankly.</p><p>I slowly turn to the dragon behind me. <em>“Say…you’re quite the big guy, you don’t happen to be able to swallow this guy in one piece?” </em>I gesture at the body on the ground.</p><p>The dragon tilts his head a little and then grins widely. <strong><em>“Oh, sure I can, I’m beginning to like you and your ideas more and more Arya.” </em></strong>He takes a step forward and sniffs his feet. <strong><em>“You know he isn’t dead yet.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“That makes it even better.” </em>I reply immediately.</p><p>Without further hesitation, the dragon picks my bully off the ground and with a few quick movements of his head the body disappears between his jaws.</p><p>The dragon tilts his head back and a second later I can hear a gulp emanate from his throat.</p><p>He smacks his lips and licks his teeth. <strong><em>“That guy is in for a rude awakening.” </em></strong>The dragons stomach growls quietly as it begins to work.</p><p>I nod and sit myself down in my usual spot between his front legs. He rests his head across his front paws and look at me with one eye. <strong><em>“It’s good to see you finally stand up for yourself, even if it’s only in your thoughts.” </em></strong></p><p>I freeze for a moment. <em>“Finally?” </em>I don’t recall seeing him in my fantasy world before last week.</p><p><strong><em>“Just because you haven’t seen me that doesn’t mean I haven’t been here. Ever since you read that one book years ago, I’ve been right there.” </em></strong>He lifts his head and gently nudges my forehead with his snout. <em>“Then why do you make an appearance now? Where were you all these years?”</em><br/>I’m unsure whether I should be afraid right now or not.</p><p><strong><em>“I couldn’t make an appearance for you would be too afraid of me. That has changed now. You’re not even afraid of death anymore.” </em></strong>He rests his head on his paws again and smiles warmly.</p><p>I laugh weakly and look at the grass between my legs. <em>“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” </em><br/>We’re interrupted by the dragon’s stomach suddenly beginning to grumble and growl lots.</p><p><strong><em>“He’s awake and I can feel him kicking.” </em></strong>I grin and laugh, usually that’s something pregnant people would say in an endearing way, now it stands for the agonizing death of some idiot.</p><p><em>“Just how is he breathing though? I imagine your stomach should be devoid of air.” </em><br/>The dragon winks at me. <strong><em>“I took care of that. Why do you think me swallowing was so audible? I also swallowed a lot of air that’s why.” </em></strong><br/><em>“That works? Doesn’t the air just get pushed out either way?” </em>I wonder quietly.</p><p><strong><em>“Not if it isn’t too much.” </em></strong>He grins widely, clearly happy with himself.</p><p>I lean back and try to imagine how it would feel like to slowly have stomach acid tear you apart, molecule by molecule. I’m sure it isn’t pretty.</p><p><strong><em>“Not in the slightest.” </em></strong>The dragon answers to my thoughts. <strong><em>“It’s worse than death by fire because it acts slower. The only hope you have is that you pass out from the pain or that whoever ate you didn’t swallow air as well, so you suffocate instead.” </em></strong></p><p>I shudder a little but then remind myself that for one this is only my imagination and I can do as many twisted, sadistic experiments as I want, and that this person has caused me so much agony that I at times wished I’d rather be dead.</p><p>The churning of his stomach slowly comes to a stop again over the next few minutes.</p><p>Silence befalls the forest again, only some birds are to be heard in the distance.</p><p><em>“That’s it? He’s gone?” </em>The dragon nods and yawns. <strong><em>“Just like that.” </em></strong><br/>I nod as well and begin to lose my grip on the fantasy world.</p><p>Once again, I find myself staring at the computer screen, it seems I didn’t move in the last… I glance at the clock… seventy minutes.</p><p>I stretch and rub my back, time to get going then.</p><p>On my way out I sneak another book into my bag, while not entirely relevant to my current subjects in school it’ll do since I felt bad for completely skipping on “useful” books today.</p><p>As per usual I head home and do my best to tune out my father whilst I’m home.</p><p>I hide in my room as much as possible.</p><p>As I’m lying on my bed, idly reading a book I realize that it’s quite unusual for me to only imagine one and the same dragon four times in a row, usually they all took turns sort of.</p><p>
  <em>“Would be quite sad if they…left? I guess. Maybe I’ll have to actively try and bring them into my imagination. That’s been the case a few times in the past.”</em>
</p><p>Eventually I hear my parents go to bed, my sign to grab me some dinner.</p><p>All of this becomes my routine over the course of the next week. Wake up, get ready, go to school, spend most of my time at school zoned out, go to the library, read a bunch, listen to music and dwell on some more or less violent fantasies, go home and hide, grab dinner, go to sleep.</p><p>I honestly don’t mind it, now that I have an outlet in my imagination, I’m quite a bit more relaxed and have an easier time ignoring my father.</p><p>Luckily the other dragons return to my fantasies too, though it often takes some conscious effort on my part.</p><p>As time passes my murder fantasies begin to become less and less frequent, only on bad days I find myself indulging in them.</p><p>One thing that becomes common among them is that I turn whoever happens to attract my ire that day into live food for the dragons once I’m done with them. Every dragon appears to take a liking to it. With them seeing how much I like tearing people apart they begin to take me with them on hunts. Though we usually aren’t hunting humans in still feels cathartic to me.</p><p>Another thing that happens more or less frequently in my dreams is me experiencing whatever fantasies from the point of view of the victim. Somehow, even though these dreams are filled with terror and pain I draw a lot of pleasure from them. What does end up concerning me quite a bit is the fact that I enjoy the end of these dreams the most. When the dream version of myself chucks the victim into the dragon’s mouth to be swallowed whole. Though in the end I put it off as a weird quirk that isn’t worth worrying about.</p><p>With an air of normalcy returning to my life time feels like its passing faster and faster, before I know it two weeks passed, then three and then a whole month.</p><p>Occasionally my thoughts go back to my suicide attempt, wondering how different things would be if I succeeded. I wonder if this would only be the first attempt in a series of many or if was just me hitting rock bottom and now it’s up to me to work my way out of it.</p><p>For the most part though, I try to forget about it. I try not to worry about how fleeting life can be and how unstable I can be. In the end it probably won’t matter either way. I’ll live till I die and then be forgotten. Whether I die today, tomorrow or in a hundred years will barely matter.</p><p>Around two months after the fact I’ve gotten entirely used to my “new” self. Everything had reached something of a steady state, the only other notable change over the last month was that I’m beginning to take on more and more dragon like features in my dreams. Sometimes my fingernails are replaced by sharp claws, other times my teeth are sharp enough to rip through everything with ease and on a few rare occasions I’m almost fully transformed into a dragon, quadrupedal walking, wings, scales and all.</p><p>That is probably a consequence of the growing wish to just leave my feeble human existence behind. Again, that didn’t mean I wanted to die, I just wanted to be rid of this human shell and become something better.</p><p>Eventually, my sixteenth birthday comes and goes, I don’t celebrate it at all, and my mother doesn’t force me to awkwardly sit there on my own at the table to blow out candles. I appreciate her quite a bit for that.</p><p>The rest of the school year passes without anything out of the ordinary either.</p><p>On the last day of school for the year I realize, that the next school year is potentially my last one. Afterwards I can get a job and move out of this hell scape. Leave all this behind and finally be my own master.</p><p>The summer holidays are some of the worst I’ve ever had. The Library has to close for over a month to fix some fuckup in the construction that only became evident now. This means I’m forced to stay home for over a month. I hadn’t realized how dependent I had become on the library.</p><p>In only a week I’ve gone through all the books I snuck from the library and in a few more days I’ve reread all the ones I own.</p><p>By week two I’m left with nothing but staring at the ceiling and waiting for time to pass.</p><p>I couldn’t go out because I didn’t have friends and neither of my parents appreciated me going out all on my own.</p><p>I try to contact my previous friends. I hadn’t had contact with him in some two years or more, but I figure I might as well try. He informs me that he’s on holiday with his parents till the end of summer break. He appears a bit…weird on the phone. I can’t really tell what it is, but I feel like he’s withholding something.</p><p>I spend the rest of the day trying to figure out what it is but, in the end, can’t.<br/>The next day I’m still bothered by his behaviour but try to distract myself, which proves to be harder than I thought since I’m confined to my room. In my desperation I begin to work through the few school books I got to keep as they’ll still be relevant next year. Around noon I can’t bear it anymore and have to put it back into my backpack. I’m sweating and breathing heavily even though I spend the entire day in a chair not moving.<br/>I lie down on the carpet in the middle of my room and stare at the ceiling. The cold floor against my back brings me some much-needed cooling and I force myself to take a few deep breaths to calm down. I begin to analyse the patterns in the wallpaper to keep my mind busy.</p><p>As I’m lying there, intently staring at an oddly shaped bit of wallpaper about three feet (1m) of the left wall and ten inches (25,5cm) off the right wall I realize that I could just zone out like I always do. After all it’s all in my head so why did I only do it at school or in the library?</p><p>I guess I had always associated my fantasy world with school and the surrounding activities and maybe sleep. While at home I spent my time reading and immersing myself into the worlds the books built.</p><p>I close my eyes and try to teleport myself into my fantasy world. It proves to be quite a struggle as my attention keeps slipping to other things but eventually after some fifteen minutes, I see a blurry version of my favourite mythical forest appear before my inner eye.</p><p>I find myself alone at first and spend a while wandering about, looking for someone to mess around with.</p><p>As I’m sneaking through the woods, I take my time to have a look at all the endemic life around me. The bugs and birds living in the ground and trees, the squirrels scurrying all around, the deer foraging through the grass and many more. They all appear to not be bothered by me, hell they don’t even seem to notice me which allows me to get rather close to them. I ponder whether I should touch them but decide against it as I don’t know how my fantasy world would react to it.</p><p>Eventually, the forest grows less dense and grass begins to cover every last inch of the ground. Soon the forest gives way to a vast grassland. Only occasional groups of trees grow throughout it and the endless sea of blades of grass is sometimes mixed in with assorted weeds.</p><p>The grass grows as tall as my hips and waves left and right in the ever-changing wind, the up to hundred fifty feet(50m) tall hills give it the appearance of a wavy grass ocean, it looks quite serene.</p><p>I stand still, just taking in the sight and smell for a while.</p><p>As the sun reaches the halfway point to the horizon, I meander deeper into the prairie.</p><p>Eventually I reach a higher hill that overlooks huge stretches of the surrounding land. I stop once more and slowly turn around. The sight leaves me breathless for a moment, it all looks so perfect, almost too perfect.</p><p>If I could I would just stay here for ever. My eyes follow the trail I carved through the grass all the way back to the forest, I must have walked quite a few miles already.</p><p>
  <em>“Time for a break I guess.”</em>
</p><p>I lean backwards until I fall over and let myself drop to the ground like a board. The grass dampens my fall a fair bit, it feels more like slowly gliding onto a mattress, like a feather.</p><p>I stare at the blue sky; my fingers play with the blades of grass between them and I feel them tickle my feet.</p><p>A feeling of tiredness overcomes me, and I feel my eyes becoming heavy and tired. <em>“A nap couldn’t hurt, I guess…”</em><br/>But this was not to be, as I’m drifting off, I feel some vibrations in the ground, a pair of strong ones followed by occasional weaker ones and when I listen closely, I hear something rustling through the grass.</p><p>I sit up and try to look around, but the grass is too tall for me.</p><p>As I’m standing up, I wonder what it could be, I hadn’t seen anything when looking around which was already in itself, but I also already had a hunch what it could be.</p><p>Just as I’m lifting my head to look around, I feel a gigantic shadow fall unto me.</p><p>My sight falls onto a gigantic dragon, his scales shine golden in the evening sun.</p><p><em>“Heh, knew it.” </em>I think to myself as I turn my head upward.</p><p><strong><em>“Curious to find you here little one, what brings you here? At this time of day as well.” </em></strong>His voice booms through my head. He is one of the older ones as indicated by his size and low voice, he’s among the largest if not the largest dragons in this world, coming in at almost forty feet (13,3m) shoulder height. His wings spanning one hundred and forty feet (42m) and his body is probably fifty-four feet (16,2m) long if you include his tail which makes up almost half of it.</p><p>I answer him by just sighing and dropping my shoulders. <strong><em>“Oh, is it that bad?” </em></strong>He lowers his head and gently nudges me. I nod and carefully place a hand on his snout.</p><p>He grumbles quietly and gently licks my face. As his tongue scrapes over my face it leaves a thick layer of saliva behind. I groan and wipe it off with the back of my hand. <em>“That was uncalled for.” </em><br/>When I open my eyes again, I see him ready to go for the full body lick. <em>“Oh no, no, no, NO!” </em>I immediately turn around and run down the hill as fast as I can.</p><p>He doesn’t waste a second either and runs after me, his every step making the ground shake as he flattens large areas of grass.</p><p>My attempt at an escape is short lived, though I do make all the way to the next hill in that time, before I trip and fall into the grass. The dragon just barely manages to stop in time and lowers his head. <em>“Please god no have mercy.” </em>I beg, curl up into a ball and cover my, still sticky, face.</p><p>He pauses and grins. <strong><em>“Good, got you out of your blue mood.” </em></strong> He takes a small step back and sits down.</p><p>I peep through my fingers and when I see that he has indeed stopped I sigh a sigh of relief and sit up. <em>“Was that really necessary though?” </em>I try to get rid of the last bits of his saliva that still stick to my face.</p><p><strong><em>“No. But it was fun.” </em></strong>He grumble laughs and his grin widens.</p><p><em>“Fair enough, but next time at least warn me, you know I don’t mind being licked most of the time but please give me at least a little warning.”</em> I give up on drying my face and slowly stand back up.</p><p><strong><em>“What are you going to do about it?” </em></strong>He teases me. <strong><em>“Besides, the expression on your face was gold.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Like you?” </em>I quip and grin. <em>“Besides, you forget where we are. I’m not bound by the rules of the real world here.” </em><br/>His grin turns into a smile. <strong><em>“Indeed. Thought you wouldn’t touch any of us, you never have, and you have too much respect for us.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Truth. Anyway…” </em>I look around for something to do.</p><p><strong><em>“Why don’t we go for a little flight?” </em></strong>He’s looking up at the sky, his wings half spread already.</p><p>I purse my lips. <em>“Hmmmmm… sure.” </em> Before I can think of anything else, he has his tail wrapped around my waist and hoists me onto his back, then leaps into the air and fully spreads his wings.</p><p>With a few heavy flaps of his wings he takes off eastward. Once he’s gotten into a stable flight, he slowly lowers his altitude until his paws glide through the upper parts of the grass, leaving a pair furrows behind him.<br/>The grass violently sways under his wings and with every stroke he flattens dozens of square feet of grass.</p><p>Whenever we come to a hill, he angles his wings upward to glide along the incline and then dive down on the other side.</p><p>I cower on his back, clinging to his neck, hoping to not be ripped off by the wind.</p><p>It’s quite surreal to be barrelling along the landscape at such ridiculous speed, we’re probably travelling at almost fifty miles an hour and I already know this isn’t his limit.</p><p>Suddenly, while I’m staring at the grass that zooms past us, fascinated by how the single blades of grass blend into one another, something blasts past us just a couple feet away. The air grows so turbulent that it throws him way off course and he has to rise into the air to not be thrown into the ground. He growls and spins around to see who it was.</p><p>We spot another dragon, much smaller, about two thirds his size, with orange-brown scales, spinning around his own axis as he ascends. Then he stops and flies in place with a smug grin on his face.</p><p>I recognize him, he’s been around for a while too but never wound up growing too big. He’s always up to some shenanigans and you never could feel fully safe around him. He’d usually strike when you were just beginning to trust him again or when you weren’t looking, like just now.</p><p>The golden dragon flies after him full speed, probably north of eighty miles an hour.</p><p>The other dragon, knowing what’s coming for him doesn’t wait around and flies off too, though his smaller wings don’t carry him as fast.</p><p>That doesn’t mean we have an easy time catching him either, he’s smaller and thus has an easier time manoeuvring.</p><p>While the chase is started in ill will, the golden dragon never planned on hurting the smaller one, he only wanted to show him that he is not to be messed with and that if he wanted to, he had no issue catching the orange-brown one. So, after a few intentional near misses with his claws and nearly driving him into the ground by simply positioning himself above the smaller dragon and slowly dropping down. It turns into a light-hearted game of tag.</p><p>I would love to join them but seeing how I lack wings that won’t be happening, besides, watching them and feeling the intense g forces is already enough adrenalin for me.</p><p>Eventually the smaller dragon gets tired and calls the chase off by landing on a nearby hill.</p><p>The golden dragon lands besides him playfully smacks his back. <strong><em>“Tired already?”</em></strong></p><p>With a grumble the small dragon answers. <strong><em>“Yes…burnt my energy too early trying to get away.” </em></strong><br/><strong><em>“You had good reason to give it your all though, if I would have gotten my claws on you…”</em></strong><br/>He grins and digs his claws into the ground.</p><p>The smaller dragon takes a cautious step aside and cowers a little. He winks at the smaller dragon to show that he really doesn’t mean any harm and he visibly relaxes.</p><p>I look down his side to see if I could jump off and after some deliberating decide that the grass should slow my fall enough or at least cushion my impact.</p><p>Much to my surprise the grass doesn’t slow me down nearly as much as I thought, and I hit the ground with a dull thud.</p><p>Both dragons immediately turn their heads and I can feel their concerned look.</p><p>After a second of silence I regain my bearings and slowly push myself off the ground. <em>“I’m fine. I’m fine.” </em>I groan and shake my head, still on all fours.</p><p>The golden dragon carefully nudges me with his snout. <strong><em>“Are you sure? That was quite the impact.” </em></strong></p><p>I grab onto his head and hoist myself up onto my feet. <em>“Yes, yes I am.” </em>I look down and see that I left quite the accurate imprint in the ground.</p><p>I can’t help myself but laugh, it looks like something out of a cartoon. <strong><em>“Please don’t do that again.” </em></strong>Says the smaller dragon as he eyes me with caution.</p><p><em>“Okay, okay. I’ll take more care.” </em>I grin and shake my head to get rid of the last bit of dizziness.</p><p>Suddenly everything begins to shake, and I’m thrown out of my fantasy world.</p><p>When I open my eyes, I see my mother kneeling next to me, shaking my shoulders while whisper yelling my name.</p><p>I look at her with confusion in my eyes and slowly sit up. “What’s the matter?” I ask.</p><p>She sighs and looks down at the carpet, she seems awfully troubled.</p><p>“I-I-I thought…you…” She pauses for a second. “…you tried to kill yourself again…” She whimpers and I can see a tear roll down her cheek.</p><p>I grunt and laugh. “No. But even if, then what?” I stand up and look at the clock. It’s almost eleven pm, where had the time gone?<br/>My father sticks his head through the door and when he sees my mother on the floor holding back tears he says. “Oh, did useless try to end herself again?” He looks at me. “Didn’t work so well did it? Like anything she does, she never does it right.” He pauses for a moment and frowns. “Maybe if you try some more it’ll work eventually. Then you’ll at least have something you accomplished.” He turns around to head to bed probably. “Can’t wait for the day you succeed.” He mutters under his breath as he turns, just loud enough for me to hear.</p><p>I scoff at his words and head out too after I hear the door to the bed room fall shut. As I’m making my way downstairs for some food, I notice how stiff my entire body is. Lying on the floor for hours wasn’t a good idea.</p><p>Just as I sit down at the dinner table, I hear my mother head to bed too, she’s still beside herself by the sounds of it. I can’t bring myself to care and continue with my dinner.</p><p>I quickly scarf down whatever my mother had cooked and go back upstairs to go to sleep, entirely unfazed by what transpired just fifteen minutes ago.</p><p>It’s only a few minutes once I crawl under the sheets that I fall asleep and find myself in my usual dream scape.</p><p>When the next morning comes, I don’t get out of bed and instead dissociate back into my fantasy world. As I was sleeping, I had come to the realization that this is the best thing I can do for the time being.</p><p>As such I spend the rest of my summer holidays in my room, usually lying down, staring at the ceiling or with my eyes closed. My mother finds me like that a handful of times and every time it seems to give her a mini heart attack, though by the end of the holidays she starts getting used to it.</p><p>Eventually school resumes and the library reopens. I don’t take long to fall back into my usual daily routine with one difference.</p><p>Now that it’s the last year of school for some of us they start actively trying to get us to apply for jobs. There had been the odd lesson about writing resumes and shit previously, but I felt it was too early for me to care.</p><p>With the end of my time in school in sight though, I begin to actually put in effort and look for potential job openings or training that I can do. I won’t be actively applying for another half a year, but I figure I best start looking now so I’ll have an idea of what is available.</p><p>Outside of that this turns into another half a year with not much happening. As I expected my grades drop a little sure but it’s also not like anyone at home cares whether I bring home straight As or an average of B-.</p><p>With the months passing pretty quickly it’s not long before I have my half year school report in hand and get to apply for jobs.</p><p>I’m unexpectedly excited about it, probably because it represents my ticketed out of this vicious cycle. Maybe I’ll get to be something greater than a wallflower for once.</p><p>Armed with a <a href="https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/r%C3%A9sum%C3%A9">résumé</a> that we had to write in class I apply to a handful of positions, most as trainees. I’m not sure what kind of an answer I should expect but with my school report having nothing below the odd C here and there I assume my chances to be decent, I’m doing better than three quarters of my peers after all.</p><p>With the flood of applications coming in around this time, the companies take a while to get back to me and while four reject me outright one comes back with an invitation to an interview.</p><p>The name of the company is Seasol and luckily, they aren’t far. The interview is later one a weekday so I can just walk there from the library. On top of that the position is for quality control at a chemical plant and thus was one of my favourites to begin with.</p><p>The only downside being that from my research into the company and its connections it seems that they work for my father’s employer too, but I don’t think much of it.</p><p>With the interview a few weeks out still, I resume my usual trudge, though my ritual of funnelling my hatred of certain people into daydreams wanes to almost nothing. Somehow the mere chance of an escape lets me fully ignore everything and everyone around me.</p><p>Eventually the day of the interview comes, and before I know it, I find myself anxiously sitting in the lobby of that company.</p><p>After what feels like hours, a man rounds the corner and asks me if I’m Arya.</p><p>I nod quickly and he asks me to follow him, we walk through a maze of corridors with offices lining the walls with the occasional health and safety poster in between.</p><p>Eventually we turn into one of the offices where I’m greeted by two more men, one of them in his thirties and one in his forties. The man that had led me here thanks me for following and wishes me the best of success before heading off.</p><p>With shaking hands, I step into the room and close the door behind me and then introduce myself.</p><p>The men ask me to take seat opposite of them and introduce themselves too. One is the head of training and the other the head of human resources.</p><p>One of them produces my application folder and blabs some fluff about how I caught their attention and that they think I might be a good fit with them, the usual nonsense they probably sprout in every interview.</p><p>After that they questions start, why did I choose their company, how do I wish to contribute, what are my ambitions, where do I see myself in five years, what about in ten years, why should they employ me and a few more.</p><p>All the while I have to grip the arm rests of the chair to keep my hands and arms from shaking.</p><p>Finally, they stop the barrage of stock standard interview questions and start to ask a few more specific ones that actually pertain to the position I applied to.</p><p>They test my knowledge of chemistry and physics but also math and English. The first three pose little to no challenge to me. Chemistry had been my favourite subject for years now and physics and math weren’t far behind either. Besides, their questions were hilariously easy to begin with, barely testing more than last year’s subjects.</p><p>Finally, after almost an hour they thank me for my time and say that they see me as a likely future employee. I thank them for the interview and the head of training escorts me back to the door.</p><p>With wobbly knees I walk back to the library to spend the rest of the day unwinding. I did not expect interviews to be so nerve racking.</p><p>I spend the next two weeks anxiously waiting for their letter, hoping that it’ll be a positive reply.</p><p>During that time, I’m too nervous to focus on anything. I spend most of my days idly staring into nothingness with a hazy mess of thoughts rampaging through my head.</p><p>Finally, the day comes, as I walk through the door, I notice a letter on the dresser, I pick it up before even taking off my shoes and take a glance at it. When I see my name written as the recipient hot and cold shudders run down my back and my heart rate skyrockets through the roof. With shaky hands I rip it open and unfold the letter inside.</p><p>It takes me three attempts to read past the “Dear Ms. …” part.</p><p>“We are greatly saddened to inform you that we will not be able to take you on as one of our trainees. We will however gladly keep your <a href="https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/r%C3%A9sum%C3%A9">résumé</a> for future openings…”</p><p>I don’t manage to read further than that. My thoughts are a mess, my knees feel weak and I can feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead.</p><p><em>“No. It can’t be.” </em>I flip the letter around to see if there’s anything on the back but no. No such luck.</p><p>I reread the letter, not wanting to believe what I just read.</p><p>“We are greatly saddened to inform you that we will not be able to take you on as one of our trainees…”</p><p>I whimper. It can’t be. They seemed so eager to employ me.</p><p>“We are greatly saddened to inform you that we will not be able to...”</p><p>I drop my head onto my chest and let my arms dangle by my side.</p><p><em>“Fuck…” </em>I sniff and feel tears well up in my eyes.</p><p>I had been so hopeful and now all this hope lies shattered at my feet like dropped vase.</p><p>I chuck the letter onto the dresser and take off my shoes and jacket, then head into my room and lie on the bed for the rest of the day. I try to flee into my fantasy world but can’t. Every few seconds my thoughts cycle back to <em>“They rejected me.”</em></p><p>At some point I hear my father laugh downstairs, the usual malicious laugh when he hears of my failures. In my head I can hear him mocking me already. “I knew she would never amount to anything, watch her collect these like fucking stamps.”</p><p>“Stupid is too stupid to get even the most basic job, I don’t understand why she even tried to apply to this.”</p><p>“Told you we should have aborted. I knew she was no good. Now she’ll live from our pockets till we die.”</p><p>“Luckily we can kick her out at eighteen, then we’ll be rid of her.”</p><p>“I sure hope she tries to off herself again, maybe this will get her to actually try.”</p><p>“Maybe a lobotomy will help, oh wait that would require a brain to begin with.”<br/>“She would make an interesting test subject for some scientists. After all she’s the first human to live without a brain.”</p><p>“She can call herself lucky that she got your looks, otherwise she wouldn’t have anything going for her.”</p><p>“Watch her stay in her room for a week, I can only hope that she’ll starve.”<br/>“Oh how I wish we were in a different time, in the olden days the useless and retarded were mercifully disposed of. Those were better days.”</p><p>I whimper and curl up into a ball, his laughter grows louder and louder, I start seeing his face everywhere I look. Even closing my eyes doesn’t help, a mental image of him immediately appears and continues mocking me.</p><p>Even when I fall asleep, I’m not safe from him, he keeps mocking me, laughing at me as I lie on the floor, wishing to cease my sad existence.</p><p>Eventually my alarm clock rips me out of nightmare, time for another day in this sad life.</p><p>As I head downstairs, I notice something off. My father’s jacket is still on its hook next to the dresser.</p><p>When I enter the kitchen my heart sinks. He sits at the end of the table, the letter from yesterday in front of him.</p><p>“What’s this?” He slides it across the table.</p><p>“A letter of rejection.” I mumble while looking at the tiles blow my feet.</p><p>“How many more times do I need to teach you this lesson stupid?” He growls. “I’ve been way too lenient on you. All you ever do is fuck around in the library. Hell, I’m not even sure if you’re just <em>fucking around </em>or actually screwing people there. By the looks of it the latter.”</p><p>He shakes his head. “Then again that seems to be the only thing you’ll ever be good for.” He laughs a self-satisfied laugh, probably all too happy with his shit joke.</p><p>“Well then, guess I’ll have to make you stay home and study and learn then since you won’t on your own. Your last school report should have already been enough proof.”</p><p>I look up at him and mumble “What?”</p><p>“You heard me right stupid, I’ll cut off your pocket money from now on. No more library for you till you actually start showing results. Consider yourself grounded until further notice too.”</p><p>He gets up from his chair and heads towards the front door. As he passes me, he makes sure the ram into me with enough force to make me nearly fall over.</p><p>“Careful there stupid, or did you forget how to stand.”</p><p>He laughs again as he heads out the door.</p><p>For just a few seconds I manage to hold it together before falling to my knees and breaking down.</p><p>Bitter tears of despair and anger flow down my face, and drip to the floor. I bury my face in my hands as heavy, heaving sobs shake my body.</p><p>What had been my entire life until now was just taken from me.</p><p>I won’t survive this. Not a week of it.</p><p>Even when my body runs out of tears to cry, I’m still lying on the floor, in a puddle of my own making, whimpering and crying.</p><p>At this point I might as well be dead. There’s nothing left in my life anymore.</p><p>After what must have been hours, I’ve still not fully calmed down, but I finally manage to have a single clear thought. <em>“I can lie here all die, it won’t change my situation. Time to take fate into my own hand.” </em></p><p>A certain clarity overcomes me, I’ve experienced this feeling once before. I use the chair next to me to pull myself up. I stumble a little as my legs almost refuse to bear my weight.</p><p><em>“Take fate into my own hands…but how…” </em>I begin racking my brain for a solution. My knowledge of chemistry might help but all it turns up are things that need time, the one thing I don’t want to spend more of, not here at least.</p><p>I sit down in the hope that it’ll allow me to think more clearly.</p><p>My eyes fall onto the kitchen table. <em>“Funny that I shall decide my fate in here of all places.”</em></p><p>I pause for a moment. <em>“Talking about kitchen.” </em>With furtive eyes I ogle the drawers. <em>“Reminds me of something.” </em>With a grin I get back up and open the first drawer.</p><p>Spoons, forks, and knives of all sizes, useful for eating and all but not what I need.</p><p>Second drawer, assorted tools, all blunt. <em>“Heh death by blunt trauma to the head…Not really a thing to self-administer.” </em></p><p>Third drawer, nothing as well. Then it hits me, why am I looking through the drawers? My father recently gifted my mother this fancy wood block.</p><p>I lift my head, it stands right before me, stocked full of the sharp knives, the good ones.</p><p>A grin crawls across my lips. <em>“That’s the stuff.” </em><br/>I grab the biggest handle of them all and pull out an impressively big cleaver. I purse my lips and drop it back into its slot. <em>“Not what I need.”</em></p><p>The second biggest handle produces just what I wanted though, a long and sharp knife.</p><p>I longingly look at the shiny metal blade of it. My eyes wander to the letter on the table <em>“You were supposed to my ticket out of here.”</em> and back to the knife. <em>“Now you’ll have to do.” </em><br/>I take a deep breath and place the point of it against my wrist.</p><p><em>“But how to cut…” </em>I turn the knife slowly, trying to think about how the angle would affect the result. Then, suddenly, I remember a line from a book I read years ago.</p><p><em>“Sideways for attention, lengthwise for effect.” </em>I turn the blade to be parallel to my arteries.</p><p>
  <em>“Certainly, looks like it makes the most sense.” </em>
</p><p>With a deep breath I push the point of the knife into my skin. At first, I feel some resistance but then it gives way and blood immediately seeps out of the cut. <em>“Very good.” </em>I think to myself with a smirk and begin to pull the knife towards my elbow.</p><p>The pain from the cut is stomach-churning but I’m too determined to care.</p><p>My heart begins to race and with it the flow of blood from the cut begins to increase, I feel it flow down my arm and drip off my arm in big, heavy, beads.</p><p>I’ve made it two thirds to my elbow when the dizziness sets in and in a moment of weakness the knife slips out of my arm. <em>“Fuck.” </em>With shaky hands I switch arms and place it against my other wrist.</p><p>Blood drips off my arm onto the other and all over me. My vision begins to grow blurry.</p><p><em>“Focus, you can do this.” </em>In a short moment of clarity, I jam the knife into my wrist. It cuts way too deep. I can’t cut like this.</p><p>I try to manoeuvre it to a position where it only cuts through the artery but end up slipping out once again. <em>“Fuck.” </em>I try again and this time nail the positioning.</p><p><em>“Quick before you black out.” </em>I can feel my heartbeat slowing down and becoming more intense.</p><p>Quick, is easier said than done with such shaky hands though and instead of a neat cut I end up with a jagged cut as I slip off the artery several times and have to go back. <em>“Looks like a tree root…” </em>My thoughts begin to become sluggish and hazy.</p><p>My arms become too weak to hold the knife properly anymore.</p><p>I drop it to the floor and admire my work. Both my arms are covered in blood, it flows out of the cuts in slow pulses, runs down my skin and drips off my elbow.</p><p>I look down to see myself standing in a big puddle of my own blood.</p><p>
  <em>“Heh…what a mess I’ve made…” </em>
</p><p>My lips quiver and I try to raise my head again.</p><p>My legs and arms tremble as the blood keeps flowing, my heart rate slowing even more in the process.</p><p>Moments later, my legs give way and I fall to the ground, hitting my head on the tiles.</p><p>My vision has turned into nothing more than a hazy black and white mess, my thoughts move at a snail’s pace.</p><p>I feel my blood getting soaked into my clothes, it feels nice and warm.</p><p><em>“I…’ve…done…it…” </em>I breathe out one more time and close my eyes before slipping into an eternal darkness.</p><p> </p><p>.</p><p>..</p><p>...</p><p>.....</p><p>.....</p><p>......</p><p>I feel the grass beneath my feet tickle my ankles as it waves in the wind. The sun overhead burns on my scalp.</p><p>Before me stand half a dozen dragons of varying sizes. All their faces feel incredibly familiar to me but are too blurry to be made out clearly.</p><p><strong><em>“Is this goodbye?” </em></strong>Asks the golden one.</p><p>I nod slowly. <em>“This is it.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>They all come forth and form a circle around me, the one with orange-brown scales stands before me, he looks the saddest of the bunch. <strong><em>“I’ll miss you Arya.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Arya…is that my name?” </em>I look up at him. <em>“I’ll miss you too…” </em>Though I don’t recognize him fully I still feel sad to have to let him go.</p><p><strong><em>“She’s losing herself…” </em></strong>Says a dragon to my left. When I turn to face him, I feel like he’s the most familiar one of the bunch.</p><p><em>“Am I?”</em> I look down at the grass and back up at the sky.</p><p>Suddenly I feel dizzy, I try to hold on to one of the dragons, but my hand passes right through him.</p><p>I hit the floor with a dull thud, it sounds almost too dull. Above me I see their heads form a circle around the sun.</p><p>The sun grows brighter and brighter until it drowns out everything.</p><p>It feels like it’s going to burn me alive, as if it’s falling onto earth itself.</p><p>Suddenly the light fades.</p><p>I blink a couple times to clear my vision.</p><p>Seems I’m staring at some sort of ceiling light.</p><p>I try to raise my arms, but they won’t obey me, as if they are strapped down.</p><p>I move my head to catch a glimpse and see that they are thoroughly bandaged up, the bandages slightly stained red in some places.</p><p>I look around to see myself in a white room, in a bed with white sheets and an awfully white light.</p><p>“Where the fuck am I?” I groan and try to sit up but again can’t since I’m strapped down or something.</p><p>I give up trying to move and just wait for something, anything to happen, not sure if there’s anything going to happen. For all I know this could be purgatory.</p><p>Hours pass, or is it days? Could also be weeks. Until eventually the door creaks open and someone with a clipboard and a lab coat struts in.</p><p>He sees me awake and hastily scribbles something onto his board, then takes a look at these machines that are hooked up to me. <em>“How did I not notice them until now?” </em>I think and try to move again.</p><p>The man hastily gestures me to stay still and continues scribbling things onto his clipboard.</p><p>Finally, he clears his throat and looks me in the eyes. “I’m glad to see you’ve pulled through. We weren’t sure at first, but it seems your body is quite durable.” He pauses for a second and looks at his notes.</p><p>“Where am I?” I ask with a raspy voice and have to cough from the sudden scratching in my throat.</p><p>“You’re in the university hospital. Your recent attempt at taking you own life put you here.” He looks at his notes again. “Your mother found you fifteen days ago on the kitchen floor when she heard a noise. EMTs were called to the scene and declared you as good as dead but attempted to stabilise you.” He flips a page onto the back of his clipboard and keeps reading. “After being rushed to this hospital you were put into an artificial coma and received four and a half litres of blood transfusions. Then you spent the reaming time in the ICU while we slowly raised you out of the induced coma.”</p><p>He looks at me again and smiles. “But that doesn’t really matter. Welcome back.”</p><p>I sigh and stare at the ceiling light. I had never thought I’d hate modern medicine for all the wonders it could bring.</p><p>“If you excuse me, I have other patients to tend to. I’ll make sure a nurse will come by to aid you.” And with that he rushes out the door and leaves me alone with the beeping machines.</p><p>Some half an hour later I hear the door open again and a nurse steps through with a tray of food in her hands. She places the try on a stand next to my bed and scribbles something onto a sheet of paper by the machines then turns to me. “Anything I can get for you?”</p><p>I try to sit up again but once again my restraints keep me down.</p><p>“I guess you could remove these.” I point my chin in the direction of where I presume to be tied down.</p><p>“Oh, I’m sorry but I can’t. You were deemed a threat to yourself. As such you were restrained for your own safety.”</p><p>I groan and frown. “What do I need to do to be rid of these?”</p><p>“That will be decided by the stations psychiatrist later today. Do you require food or water?”</p><p>With a sigh a mumble. “Water please.”</p><p>The nurse grabs the bottle of water from the tray, unscrews it and holds it to my lips.</p><p>I begrudgingly drink all of it and once the bottle is empty, she puts it back onto the tray.</p><p>“If you need anything press the buzzer in your right hand. She reaches for something above the headboard and pulls down a little button thingy with a wire attached to it.</p><p>She turns on her heels and flies out the room again, leaving me with just the beeping of the machines.</p><p>Hours pass before anything happens again.</p><p>When the door opens again a third person, I don’t recognize at all steps in. He wears the usual lab coat but it’s not the same doctor as last time. “Ah hello, I’m the stations psychiatrist. I assume you by now you know why you’re here?”</p><p>I nod and purse my lips.</p><p>“Well then, how are you feeling today?”</p><p>“Alive?” I answer cautiously.</p><p>“Sad? Happy? Angry?” He asks with a dry voice.</p><p>“None of the above.” I reply with a just as dry voice.</p><p>He nods and continues his questionnaire of inane questions for nearly half an hour.</p><p>Then he leaves again, I almost want to ask when they’ll remove the straps that keep me down, but he has already left the room by then.</p><p>What follows is the most boring week of my life, I’m strapped down and can barely move, only once a day a nurse frees me and I get to walk around for fifteen minutes, heavily supervised.</p><p>In between that I get the usual visits from doctors, the psychiatrist and more nurses to give me meds, check my vitals, ask me many, many questions and change my bandages. Every time they change my bandages, I’m a little shocked to see just how much damage I did to my arms. Each one has a seven inch (18cm) long and pretty deep looking cut, they’re both held shut by a lot of staples and some thread in places to sensitive to staple. Even with how destroyed my arms are they still heal surprisingly quickly. All these things keep me occupied for a couple minutes at a time.</p><p>The only thing they give me to keep my busy in between, is a TV strapped to the ceiling. It serves me well the first few days but soon I get bored of the repetitive shit they show. I don’t turn it off though, I leave it as background noise to drown out the constant beeping from the machines.</p><p>In an attempt to flee my situation, I attempt to zone out but every time I can’t bring up the focus, the place is too noisy, nurses interrupt me too frequently and the meds they give me don’t help either.</p><p>Thus, I spend most of my time with a completely blank mind, just staring into nothingness, occasionally a conscious thought brings me back into the real world but that’s it.</p><p><em>“Why am I even still here…what’s the point of this…” </em>I think to myself.</p><p><em>“The doc told me my mother found me and that’s the sole reason I’m still alive, but why was she still home? Both of them should have already been gone by then… Did she stay behind because she knew what my father planned?” </em>This question keeps me busy for quite a while, it would be quite unusual of her to stay home this late and any reason I come up with doesn’t make too much sense.</p><p>On day six, or is it seven, I’ve lost track of time. I get an unexpected visitor. Sometime in the early evening my mother comes by my room, she looks…different. As if she’s been very, very stressed for the last while and hasn’t been sleeping well.</p><p>She puts a bouquet of flowers into the vase next to my bed. I eye the flowers, then look at her and shrug. I couldn’t care less honestly.</p><p>She sighs a sigh of relief and runs her hand through my hair.</p><p>“It’s good to see you do better…” She mutters under her breath.</p><p>“I guess.” I mumble. “How come you were still home that day? You usually go to work quite a bit, earlier don’t you?”</p><p>She nods slowly, I can see the gears in her head turning as she’s thinking about what to say next.</p><p>“I wasn’t feeling too good, probably ate something off that day and thus had to stay home.”</p><p>After a brief pause, I reply. “I see.”</p><p>I return to staring into nothingness, I can feel my mother wants to say something more but can’t bring herself to say it.</p><p>Fifteen minutes of her awkwardly standing next to my bed with her hand in my hair later, she withdraws her hand and slowly leaves the room again.</p><p><em>“That’s my typical luck I guess, I chose to off myself on one day of the year that my mom is home sick…” </em>I laugh at the fact that I’m always lucky when I don’t want to be.</p><p>A few hours later the psychiatrist comes by again to do his usual questionnaire again, the questions are the same but different as usual. By now I’ve almost figured out what he wants to her and what I shouldn’t say.</p><p>Once he finishes, he doesn’t immediately leave the room like he normally does, instead he stays and looks at his notes with furrowed eyebrows while tapping his pen against his chin.</p><p>“Tell me, who brought these flowers. I forgot to ask earlier.” He asks suddenly.</p><p>I turn my head to look at the bouquet. It’s quite an impressive one actually, I hadn’t had a proper look at it until now. “My mother brought them just a few hours ago.” I smell the air and between all the sterile hospital smells I notice the slightly sweet scent of flowers. “I quite like them.” Somehow the sight and smell of the flowers suddenly makes me feel a little happier, even if it’s just momentary.</p><p>The psychiatrist nods and flips through the pages of his clipboard, then launches into another barrage of questions. They are completely new to me and I try to answer them all as truthfully as I can.</p><p>Another half an hour later he finishes his exhausting questionnaire again. Towards the end he almost seems to be smiling.</p><p>“Well then, it seems you’ve stabilised enough.” He bends over and begins messing with something near my arms, then he moves to my legs and lastly to my other arm.</p><p>“Don’t try anything funny though or we’ll be forced to restrain you again.” He says in a warning tone.</p><p>I just nod and shake my arms and legs. I’ve never felt so stiff.</p><p>After he leaves, I help myself to the tray of now cold food. It tastes incredibly bland but at least it’s something.</p><p>The next few days are a blur of nurses coming in to look after me, taking my vitals and changing my bandages. My wounds are starting to look pretty good. They even remove the staples and replace them with a type of thread that supposedly dissolves on its own. By the looks of it I got so lucky that in a few years I’ll barely have a scar left.</p><p>Finally, after what must have been over two weeks, one of the nurses comes in with a another set of new bandages and a slip of paper that reads release papers.</p><p>“Good news, your wounds have healed to the point where you’ll be able to change the bandages yourself and will thus be released from the hospital.” She places the papers next to me and goes to work changing my bandages one last time.</p><p>“If anything should feel off or change please do come back any time.” She helps me out of the bed.</p><p>Only now do I notice that I had been changed into a hospital gown, though luckily, they must have washed my old clothes as I find them stacked in the lower compartment of the nightstand. Upon closer inspection I notice that it’s just a set that looks incredibly similar to what I wore that day. Not that I care much anyway.</p><p>“Need help changing?” The nurse asks and I shake my head in response.</p><p>She heads out the door and leaves me to change on my own.</p><p>Once I’m done, I grab my release papers and head out the door. The nurse is still waiting by the door and grabs my arm to lead me to the exit. I don’t pay any attention to my surroundings, I’m too busy trying not to fall over my own feet.</p><p>“Outside you can catch a taxi to pick you up if you need to. There’s a voucher attached to the bottom of you release papers that’ll tell the taxi driver all he needs.”</p><p>I nod solemnly and take a glance at the papers then back at the tile floor.</p><p>I see us approaching a set of big glass sliding doors with a set of stairs leading down to a roundabout. The nurse escorts me all the way out the door and then says her goodbyes and wishes me well, then turns on her heel and walks back inside.</p><p>Just like that I’m left outside, on my own.</p><p><em>“Guess I at least got this.” </em>I look at my release papers a bit more closely and spot the taxi voucher.</p><p>I stagger down the short flight of stairs to the roundabout and look for a taxi.</p><p>While I don’t have a jacket on me the noon sun is powerful enough to keep me warm.</p><p>It’s not before long that one shows up and stops next to me.</p><p>The driver rolls down the passenger side window and asks where to.</p><p>Wordlessly I hand him my release paper. He takes a quick look at it, hacks some stuff into his navigation system and gestures me to get into his taxi.</p><p>I spend the entire drive home in silence, the taxi driver tires to make small talk with me but after the third time of me not even acknowledging him he gives up.</p><p>Luckily the hospital is only a fifteen-minute drive from my home.</p><p>He drops me off on the driveway and immediately heads off, we’re both happy that that ride is over.</p><p>I look for my keys and fortunately they are in the same pocket as usual. <em>“Nice attention to detail…or a lucky coincidence.” </em><br/>I unlock the door and head inside, by the sound of it no one is home.</p><p>I head into my room and lie down on the bed, staring at the ceiling.</p><p><em>“Here we are again, back in the usual hell. Certainly, a different from the purgatory of the hospital.” </em><br/>I close my eyes and take a deep breath. <em>“Time to figure out how to survive this then. Seems like fate really wants me to stay and suffer.” </em>I open my eyes again and furrow my eyebrows.</p><p><em>“And I have a hunch my father’s demeanour is not going to change.” </em>I purse my lips and sigh.</p><p><em>“What to do…what to do…” </em>I ponder my options of keeping me occupied while I’ll be stuck in here for…half a year? More than that even. At least until my graduation.</p><p>My best chances are to zone out whenever I can and praying that I get a job somewhere, anywhere.</p><p>As I’m making a mental list of things to keep me sane, I begin to drift off to sleep and eventually end up dozing off.</p><p>I wake up many hours later, the sun had already set, and I hear my parents come up the stairs, hopefully to go to bed and not bother me.</p><p>I hold my breath as I hear them reach the top of the stairs, only breathing out when I hear the bedroom door fall shut.</p><p>This is my cue to go downstairs and get some dinner that my mom hopefully made.</p><p><em>“Wonder if they even knew I was coming back today.” </em>I sneak out of my room and down the stairs.</p><p>One the kitchen counter I spot a letter with a header from the hospital I was at. I pick it up and straighten it out. “Dear blah, blah, your daughter blah, blah, blah, set to be released on blah, blah, blah…” <em>“Yep they knew I’d be back, hell they even gave a time.” </em><br/>I put the letter back grab me my dinner.</p><p>As usual I scarf it down in no time and put my plate into the dishwasher, then head back up the stairs and to bed.</p><p>Next morning the shrill beeps of my alarm rip me out of my sleep, and I trudge to school after going through my usual routine.</p><p>At school I notice people looking weird at me, I’m not unfamiliar with people looking at me, especially the boys, but this was different.</p><p>
  <em>“Probably heard of my suicide attempt or something.” </em>
</p><p>The school day passes as usual as well, though I notice the behaviour of the teachers has changed a little too. <em>“Probably think I’m insane or something.” </em><br/>After school I head to the library but not to hide as per usual. No, I’ll have to hand in my library card and put my “lent” books back into their shelves.</p><p>Once that’s done, I head to the librarian’s desk, my heart heavy with sadness. <em>“Here goes my joy, my happiness… the light of my life.” </em>I take another look back at the dozens and dozens of bookshelves. It’ll never the same after today… It won’t be my save haven anymore.</p><p>I sniff and hold back tears, then step up to the librarian.</p><p>He looks up from his computer screen and when he realizes that it’s me his demeanour immediately changes.</p><p>I grab my library card with both hands and with shaky hands extend it towards him.</p><p>The librarian looks at the card, then at me and back at the card.</p><p>“Handing in your library card?” He asks, equally confused and dumbfounded.</p><p>I nod with tears welling up in my eyes. A sob escapes me.</p><p>He looks up at me again. “You don’t have to…” He wants to add something, but I cut him off with a curt “I do.”</p><p>He pauses for a moment and looks at me with worried eyes.</p><p>“Right…” He takes a moment to look at the card again, then carefully grabs it.</p><p>It takes every single bit of willpower in me to let go off the card and when I feel it slip from my hands another whimper escapes me.</p><p>I wipe the tears from my eyes with my index fingers and stand there, rooted on the spot.</p><p>The librarian holds the card still for a moment longer, then puts it next to his keyboard.</p><p>I see his jaw move, as if he’s preparing to say something. “Anything else?” He mutters while trying not to look at my eyes. I slowly shake my head and force myself to take step away from his desk, then another and another.</p><p>I drop my chin onto my chest and snivel once more. <em>“There goes my life…” </em><br/>The walk home feels like walking the green mile, like walking up to the gallows, convicted of crimes I didn’t commit.</p><p>Once I get home the entire house feels a lot smaller, with every step I take inside the walls inch closer.</p><p>My room feels no bigger than a cupboard. I lie down on my bed, but even curled up I feel like I’m bound to fall off.</p><p>I force myself to take deep breaths and try to clear my thoughts, but it wouldn’t help.</p><p>Whenever I get a grip on my thoughts, they slip me, and it all falls into chaos again.</p><p>At some point I must have fallen asleep as I’m eventually awoken by the alarm.</p><p>With a deep sigh I get up and make my way to school, then back into my own personal hell.</p><p>This time my father is already home when I walk through the door and much to my dismay, he immediately takes notice.</p><p>“Oh hey, useless is back once more. Still can’t off yourself right huh?” I hear him fumble with something. “At least you came back right after school and didn’t fuck around the entire day, not that you could anyway. You don’t have the money for it.” He cackles. “Anyhow, now get to work on your homework. I want to see those grades improving.”</p><p>I harrumph and head up the stairs to my room. His self-righteousness pisses me off to no end, he seems to take so much joy in making me suffer.</p><p>I grit my teeth and sit down at my desk. <em>“Guess I’ll have to do some homework. Better than sitting idle and not knowing what to do…” </em><br/>Sadly my homework is not nearly enough to keep me busy for long, only an hour later I’m already done.</p><p>I take a look at my workbook and flip through the pages. I already have a hunch what’ll be my next homework. I could do it now already…though I wouldn’t have anything to do tomorrow…</p><p><em>“Fuck it.” </em>I think to myself and get to working through the rest of it. I’ll find something else tomorrow.</p><p>I end up going through the entirety of the current chapter and even start going into the next one a little before it’s time for me to get ready for dinner and bed.</p><p>This should become my routine over the next week, coming home, doing my current homework and then doing a bunch more that I would have to do next anyway.</p><p>Sadly, after a week I’ve already gotten so far ahead that I’ve already completed all current homework. As such I end up lying on the bed hoping to zone out, but I can’t. My focus keeps slipping me and I end up back in the real world.</p><p>I keep trying, again and again and again, after all it’s the only thing I can do right now.</p><p>Finally, after probably many hours of trying I manage to slip away into my fantasy world.</p><p>I find myself in a gigantic metropolis, the air heavy with something, it couldn’t be exhaust gasses. The streets are devoid of both cars and humans.</p><p>I’ve been to this town a few times before, it’s a complete ghost town. No one has been here in a while.</p><p>I wander about the streets, mostly sticking to the wider main roads.</p><p>The skyscrapers looming above me feel incredibly oppressive and make the roads seem a lot narrower than they are.</p><p>As I’m taking a stroll through one of the parks, I notice some odd food prints in the grass. They look quite distinctly like those of a dragon, if the size wasn’t already enough of a giveaway.</p><p><em>“They’re still here.” </em>I had almost lost hope that I’d ever see them again. I run after the tracks and before long I see a light green dragon sitting next to an artificial lake.</p><p>When she hears my footsteps, she lifts her head and looks over to me. I can see a smile immediately spread over her face as she gets up to greet me. I stop just a few feet (2m) away from her. She prances around me, her eyes fixated on me.</p><p><strong><em>“Welcome back Arya, where have you been.” </em></strong>Her tail wraps around my legs and hips as she circles me.</p><p><em>“Let’s not talk about that…” </em>I sigh weakly smile.</p><p><strong><em>“Okay, shall I take you to the others? They’ll want to see you too.”</em></strong> By now her tail has almost fully enveloped me. I quickly nod and immediately feel her lift me off the ground and onto her back.</p><p>Just a split second later she jumps into the air with a joyous roar and soars up into the sky.</p><p>She flies as fast as her wings will carry her, in mere minutes we’ve left the city perimeter behind us and entered the gigantic grassland surrounding it. The orange-brown dragon is the first one to join us. At first, he stares at me in disbelief but when he realizes that he’s not seeing things, he grins widely and tries to steal me off her back. The green dragon isn’t having anything of it though and swiftly outmanoeuvres him, leaving him with no choice but to follow.</p><p>On the horizon I see another dragon approach and to my far left I spot the golden one lying on top off a hill. The green dragon beings to slowly lower her altitude and just as the other two dragons catch up to us, she lands between two hills.</p><p>The golden dragon walks right up to her, as soon as his head is close enough, I reach for it and wrap my arms around it for a tight and long hug.</p><p><strong><em>“We thought we lost you…” </em></strong>He says with an overjoyed voice. <em>“I’m glad you didn’t.” </em>I rub my head against his scales.</p><p>I feel a gently tug on my shirt, when I turn around, I see it’s the small orange-brown dragon tugging on me. I let go off the golden dragon, who immediately takes a step back to let other have their turn.</p><p>I hug the small dragons head too and gently rub his chin. <strong><em>“Please don’t ever go away again Arya.” </em></strong>He murmurs.</p><p>The fourth dragon of the bunch now nudges me to get my attention and I give him a loving hug too.</p><p><em>“It’s good to be back.” </em>I stand up on the green dragons back and brace myself to jump off.</p><p><strong><em>“HALT.” </em></strong>The golden dragons voice booms through my head. <strong><em>“Remember last time? Because I do.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Aaaaah… fine.” </em>I sit back down and wait for the green dragon to lift me offer her back.</p><p>Once I’m down in the grass I take a look around at all four of them. <em>“Where’s the rest?” </em><br/>I ask curiously.</p><p><strong><em>“On their way.” </em></strong>Says the golden one while looking westward.</p><p>I nod quickly and smile widely. Maybe this will make my isolation bearable.</p><p>As is on cue the other two dragons arrive too. After hugging both of them I notice that the other four had formed a circle around me in the meantime. There was no way out for me, their bodies formed a perfect barricade.</p><p><em>“I am not going anywhere, now am I?” </em>They all shake their heads in unison. <em>“I don’t mind though.” </em>I laugh and slowly turn in a circle.</p><p>Being back feels so good.</p><p>As I’m turning towards the orange-brown dragon I notice that his mouth is open just a bit, usually sign that he’s going to lick me any moment now.</p><p>I stop and stare him down while slowly shaking my head. I can see him think about whether to go for it or not.</p><p>In the end he decides to not and I can tell he’s a bit upset that he couldn’t.</p><p>I smile and laugh lightly. <em>“Okay, okay go for it.” </em>He grins and immediately goes for it.</p><p>His tongue rasps all over me from knee to hairline, leaving a trail of warm saliva behind it.</p><p><em>“Ugh…” </em>I shake what I can off my arms, at least he’s happy now.</p><p>He grins widely and licks his chops, clearly satisfied. I lean forward and rub the tip of his snout, he clearly doesn’t like my wet, sticky hands on his nose but also knows he can’t complain.</p><p>I wink and him and sit down in the grass, then lean back until I fall over.</p><p>Above me I see their heads form something of ring as they all stare down at me. <em>“It’s nice to be back.” </em><br/>We spend the next few hours lazing about and frolicking through the grass.</p><p>Much too soon, the sun begins to set on us, a sign that it’s probably time for me to go.</p><p>I snap back into the real world and indeed, it’s almost ten pm. With some time to kill I figure I might as well tidy up my room, not that it’s particularly messy but it’ll fill the half an hour till my parents go to bed.</p><p>Like clockwork I hear the stairs creak at ten thirty and five minutes later I sneak down to nab me some food and go to sleep.</p><p>Since I worked so far ahead, I get to spend the next week zoning out for just about the entire time I spend at home. Turns out it’s almost as good as books and I wind up not missing the library too terribly much.</p><p>Though as all good things in my life this shalt be short lived too. For some reason my father decides to check on me to make sure that I’m actually doing something. When he sees me lying on the bed staring at the ceiling he flips. He grabs me by the neck of my shirt and throws me off the bed while screaming at me.</p><p>“WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT BEING LAZY! YOU’VE GOT THREE SECONDS TO GET GOING.”</p><p>I look up at him, equally confused and scared. “B-But I’m already done…” I stutter as I sit up, slightly dazed from the impact.</p><p>“BULLSHIT.” He raises his right arm to smack me. “ALL YOU’VE BEEN DOING IS LYING AROUND AND DOING NOTHING.”</p><p>Tears well up in my eyes. Why, why does this always happen. “N-No. I can prove it.”</p><p>“NO TALKING BACK.” He smacks me across the face hard enough to make me fall onto my side.</p><p>“Three….” He growls and looms above me. “Two….” I jump up and run to my desk, at this point I’ll about anything to appease him.</p><p>“One…” With tears clouding my vision I hastily dig through my backpack and throw whatever I find onto my desk and flip open a random page.</p><p>“Good.” He mumbles and moves to the doorframe. “Now get going.” I look over at him with fearful eyes as I blindly pick through my pencil case.</p><p>“GET GOING BEFORE I MAKE YOU REGRET BEING BORN.”<br/>I jump in my chair and hastily start scribbling nonsense onto the paper. A few seconds later the door slams shut with such force that the entire room shakes.</p><p>I hear my father stomp down the hallway and down the stairs. Only once it’s been quiet for over a minute do I dare to look up.</p><p>The right side of my face feels hot and I feel it pulsate with my every heartbeat. I slowly close my eyes and pair of tears rolls down my face. I hear them hit the paper and a quiet sob escapes my lips.</p><p><em>“Why?”</em><br/>I look back down at my desk, whatever I just wrote looks like the scribbles of an insane person, the page of the book I randomly threw open I had already done too.</p><p>I bury my face in my palms and let myself cry it out. There was no point in trying to hold it together anymore.</p><p>The tears keep flowing for a long time, my mind has gone completely blank, I’m too afraid to even think. Future, past and present they all feel empty and pointless to me.</p><p>Finally, once my eyes are almost glowing red and a crust of salt has formed on my cheeks, I force myself to break out of it.</p><p>
  <em>“What to do?” </em>
</p><p>I take another look at my desk. I could go and work even further ahead but that’ll only last me a couple more weeks at best. I could try and work through it more slowly but from the few times I had tried that didn’t work too well.</p><p>I could pretend to be busy, though he would probably catch on eventually and then beat me up even more.</p><p>I could keep an ear out for his steps and only do stuff when he’s coming upstairs but what if I fuck that up even just once?</p><p>With a disheartened sigh I stare at the wall ahead of me.</p><p>
  <em>“What to do…What to do?”</em>
</p><p>The patterns of the wallpaper begin to melt into one another, creating twisting and swirling patterns all over.</p><p>I shake my head and lightly smack my temples.</p><p><em>“What the fuck is happening to my brain.” </em>When I open my eyes again it’s all back to normal.</p><p><em>“Weird.” </em>I rub my eyes and stare at the wall again, waiting for something to happen.</p><p>After a few solid minutes of nothing I sigh and look around.</p><p><em>“Maybe I am actually going insane.” </em><br/>I hear the stairs creak as someone walks up them.</p><p>The sound makes me jump in my chair once again and I hastily grab a pen. My breath runs flat and my heart beats so fast it might just explode.</p><p>With panicked eyes I look at the textbook ahead of me and start redoing a random exercise, I still remember most of the answers still but what does it matter right now.</p><p>The paper is still wet enough in most places that the pen barely writes but I can’t bring myself to care.</p><p>I hear the door open and mentally brace myself for getting yelled at again.</p><p>“Good, seems I finally got the message through your thick skull.” I hear my father snarl from the side. I don’t dare look up from my desk.</p><p>My mind blanks completely, I try to gather my thoughts but can’t. Even the simplest things feel impossible in this moment.</p><p>When he sees me freeze up all the sudden, he says: “What is it dummy? Did you just pretend to be busy?” I can feel his seething anger.</p><p>It takes me a few seconds to stutter:” N-n-no. I-I’m just stumped…” I pretend to scratch my temple with my pen in an attempt to look like I’m thinking hard.</p><p>I hear him walk up to me and look over my shoulder, though I can’t see him I can feel where exactly he’s standing.</p><p>He looks over what I had written down then sighs. “Fine you weren’t pretending to work. Though you must be truly brainless to be stuck on such an easy task. Is it that I need to tutor you?”</p><p>The thought of having him “tutor” me makes me freeze, I can feel my heart skip a few beats and my jaw drop.</p><p>He grunts and grumbles:” What is it stupid? Lost your voice.” He smacks me up the back of the head, not hard enough to properly hurt but also more than what I would call an encouraging tap of the back of the head.</p><p>I clear my throat and breathe in deeply. “No, there’s no need for that. I just lost my train of thought when you came in.”</p><p>“That excited to see me?” He says with heavy sarcasm in his voice. “Keep going then.” He turns around makes sure to kick my chair as he turns. “Remember, until your grades improve, you’re on house arrest.”</p><p>I nod solemnly and sigh. “Don’t dare throw yourself a self-pity party, you brought this onto yourself.” He growls from the door, then slams it shut behind him as he leaves.</p><p>I catch myself holding my breath as I listen to him walk back down.</p><p>
  <em>“Oh boy, this won’t be the last time he checks in. Guess this is my life now.”</em>
</p><p>I sigh and feel myself getting teary eyed again.</p><p>With a sigh I shut my eyes tight, forcing two small tears out of the side of my eyes.</p><p><em>“Tears won’t help me now.”</em> I take a deep breath and look at the textbook once more.</p><p>“You had almost perfect grades once, you can do it again.” I whisper to myself.</p><p><em>“But this shit is pointless…But it’s better than getting beat up by my father.” </em><br/>I peer at the clock, nine pm, late enough that I have an excuse to go to bed soon.</p><p>I sit in my chair, idly staring at the paper in front of me, idly scribbling away in the hope that it’ll look like I’m being productive.</p><p>The minutes drag on forever as I wait for my parents to go to bed.</p><p>Finally, I hear them walk up the stairs and when their bedroom door falls shut, I slouch over in my chair and feel my muscles relax.</p><p>After a couple minutes of deep breaths and letting the tension I didn’t even know I had built up go, I get up and sneak downstairs. This time I take extra caution to not make a single noise, which was easier said than done as the stairs love to creak.</p><p>I quickly grab myself a plate and food, then plop myself down at the dinner table and begin my usual routine of devouring whatever my mother cooked.</p><p>While I’m busy eating I begin to think. <em>“If this continues, I’m not going to make it for long.”</em></p><p>I take another bite and shake my head.</p><p><em>“But what to do, what to do?”</em> I continue to idly shovel food into my mouth.</p><p>Once again, I run through my options but come up with nothing useful once again.</p><p>The fork scrapes over the empty plate, snapping me out of my thoughts.</p><p>“Huh?” I say quietly as I look around before realizing that I had already finished me dinner.</p><p>I look at my empty plate and sigh. “Oh well, time to go to bed then…” I take my sweet time to put my shit away and walk back upstairs.</p><p>Usually I fall asleep pretty quickly once I lie down in bed I can’t drift off.</p><p>My mind is too agitated, I can’t find the peace I need to sleep.</p><p>Time and time again I run through my list of ways to make my house arrest bearable only to turn up empty handed.</p><p>I try to distract myself by thinking of my dream world but my grasp on it slips again and again as my thoughts return to the issue at hand.</p><p>I toss and turn for nearly an hour, even with my eyes closed my mind won’t come to rest.</p><p>“Ugh.” I sit up and groan.<em> “Can’t even escape into the realm of dreams anymore.” </em><br/>I rub my temples and cower on my bed, the sheets thrown over my knees and tucked between my belly and thighs.</p><p><em>“What to do, what to do?” </em>I try to think as hard about it as I can in the hope that a solution may reveal itself to me.</p><p>I keep raking my brain for what feels like an eternity, but I can’t come up with anything useful.</p><p>Annoyed, I let myself fall backwards and spread out my arms. I stare at the ceiling, feeling defeated and angry. <em>“This can’t be such a hopeless situation, there must be a solution to this.” </em>My anger and annoyance begin to turn into dread. <em>“But what if it is? What if there is no way out of this?” </em><br/>Chills run down my spine and my blood runs cold. I quickly pull my blanket up to my chin and curl up. <em>“One shudders to imagine what that would be like.” </em></p><p>I shake my head violently in an attempt to shake those thoughts off.</p><p><em>“If only I could daydream while looking productive…”</em><br/>I dive into some memories of things I once imagined while daydreaming. The usual grand landscapes, mythical beings and more.</p><p>For a moment I see myself standing at the edge of a city not too dissimilar from the one I live in now, on top of a hill, looking over a vast forest during autumn. I can almost feel the breeze blowing against my skin and making my hair wave a little.</p><p>I take a deep breath and sigh. <em>“If only my father didn’t randomly come to check on me…” </em><br/>I feel myself slowly losing grip on the memory and slipping back into the real world, the images from the memory remaining as just a mere shade at the edge of my consciousness.</p><p>Now that I get to have something of an outside perspective on the whole thing, I realize how many of my daydreams were just me either straight up reliving or putting my own little twist on things I’ve read over the years.</p><p><em>“Heh, seems like I really just want to live in the worlds created by those authors.” </em><br/>I quickly skim through a bunch more memories and for almost every single one I can tell which book it’s based on.</p><p>
  <em>“It’s almost sad to think of how many of these worlds I may have forgotten about by now…”</em>
</p><p>While I’m lying in bed, recalling these memories I notice how I’m still quite aware of my surroundings, I still hear the clock tick and the usual noises from outside. I’m kind of zoned out but also not.</p><p>
  <em>“Wish I could save them somehow, prevent them from being forgotten, but alas, my memory will never be good enough for that.”</em>
</p><p>I pause for a moment and begin to ponder how the authors created these intricate worlds in the first place.</p><p><em>“Quite admirable, keeping track of all these details to make the world consistent and sensible. I can barely keep things straight for my rather short daydreams.”</em><br/>Quietly, I wonder if I could ever get to a point where I would be able to write stories of my own. I had thought about it a few times before but one quick look at my essays from school would be enough to bring me back to earth. Sure, I got decent grades for them, but they were far from good enough to be published or anything. After all I’ve only read books, I have not a clue of all the intricacies that come with actually being an author.</p><p>Then I realize something, why am I even worrying about how publishable whatever I write is? It’s not supposed to be read by anyone but me.</p><p>If I were to just write down my daydreams, I wouldn’t need to worry about forgetting them and I could look busy to my father so he would leave me alone. All the while zoning out enough to not be bothered by my circumstances.</p><p><em>“Ha-ha, I got</em><em> it</em><em>!”</em> A smile spreads across my face <em>“It’s not perfect but if he asks what the hell I’m writing, I’ll just tell him I joined the creative writing class. To improve my grades obviously.”</em></p><p>I cackle quietly and roll onto my side. I can feel my mind finally getting to rest as tiredness spreads throughout me.</p><p>Less than a minute later I’ve fall fast asleep and drifted off into the realm of dreams.</p><p>I get to relive all of that day’s events in their traumatic glory, the looks people gave me, me having to hand in my library card, the way home, my father yelling at me, my father throwing me to the ground and smacking me and the existential dread of having to deal with this for possibly ever.</p><p>But even after I’ve gone through it all again, I’m not free yet. I find myself in the heart of a forest, my father standing before me, yelling at me about me being no good, me being a liar, a fraud.</p><p>How he hopes I die broken and alone in a ditch somewhere, how if I were a dog, he would take me out behind the barn and cave my skull in with a shovel or drown me in a well.</p><p>Even though it’s a dream and I’ve torn him to pieces many times over I can’t bring up the willpower to stand up to him.</p><p>My mind seemingly has given up on fighting him, only a small part of me still wants to get up and tear him apart.</p><p><em>“But why fight, he’s everywhere. You can’t escape him.” </em>I open my eyes again and find the trees to be replaced with twisted versions of him, I look to the ground to see it covered in his face as well, even in the sky I see a gigantic version of him looming above me.</p><p>They all chant the same thing from a thousand mouths. “Useless, worthless, useless, worthless.”</p><p>In the sea of voices, I hear the version of him that stands before me say. “Why don’t you end yourself now, safe everyone the trouble. That is if you can.” His speaks with a mocking voice, imitating the motion of my slicing open my arms.</p><p>“You can’t, you never will. Like with anything you do. You fail. Always.”</p><p>I look down at my own hand and notice a familiar knife in my hands. A fiendish grin grows on my face and I slowly lift my head again.</p><p>“Do it. Rid the world of you, make it a better world. Everyone will appreciate it. We’ll make it a national holiday. The glorious day on which the world was freed of the worst person alive.”</p><p>Without looking I drive the knife into my abdomen and immediately pull my hand to my side, cutting my gut wide open.</p><p>With a painful moan I fall to my knees, the handle sticks out of my side and blood floods out of the wound onto the ground.</p><p>My father stands right before me, his face filling my entire field of view, even I turn my head it persists, like it’s etched into my retina.</p><p>“You don’t think it’ll be this easy to escape us?” I reach for the knife again, intent to go for the heart this time but when I close my hand, I feel only air between my fingers, the knife is gone, the wound remains.</p><p>“See, you always fail, everything you try, it always goes wrong. I’m surprised you ever had any friends to begin with. I guess they took pity on you and bore the misery you put them through for your sake. Just like I and your mother do.”</p><p>I close my eyes in the hope that he’ll go away but even with my eyes tightly shut his face still fills the darkness.</p><p>“We only kept you because you don’t abandon babies, we did it as a courtesy. I was all for the meatgrinder but that would be <em>illegal</em>.”</p><p>I open my eyes again to see all trees, bushes and flowers replaced by him, everything has become my father, thousands of his clones stand around me, as far as I can see. They all still chant “Worthless, useless, worthless, useless.” Almost all the light has disappeared too, the only thing that illuminates the forest is a gigantic moon with my father’s face on it the rest of the sky is devoid of stars.</p><p>My breath runs fast and heavy, when will this nightmare finally end?</p><p>Suddenly I see the edge of the sun peek over the horizon. As it’s light breaks through the darkness, I see something in the far-off distance, not much more than a speck of dust.</p><p>Out of nowhere I feel my father smack me with an invisible hand, I’m knocked to the ground and when I look up, I see him stand beside me. “I guess murder is illegal but that doesn’t mean I can’t make you suffer just a little.” He spits in my face and kicks my ribcage.</p><p>I curl up into a ball and cover my head, but I don’t cry. I deserve this for all the problems I cause.</p><p>Patiently, I await his next kick or punch, but it doesn’t come.</p><p>Once again, I turn my head to look up, just in time for my father to be engulfed by a pair of familiar looking jaws. The dragon violently shakes his head, sending my father’s arms and legs flying through the air, then he quickly jerks his head backwards and swallows what remains of him.</p><p>The remaining clones all begin to howl an ear-piercing tone and run towards him, trying to pile onto him and crush him with their weight. He growls the most threatening growl I’ve ever heard and jumps on top of me to protect me.</p><p>He quickly tears through the masses of my father with his claws, teeth, tail and fiery breath.</p><p>They all scream in agony as they are torn to shreds, incinerated or smashed.</p><p>The soundscape is almost otherworldly, it’s like something out of a torture chamber.</p><p>I shut my eyes, cover my ears and pray that it’ll all be over soon.</p><p>An eternity passes before I dare to even slightly move my hands to let some sounds in.</p><p>My surroundings have fallen quiet again, or at least I think so.</p><p>I listen closely for a minute before opening my eyes again.</p><p>I’m lying on the floor, in the heart of the forest where this all began, the dragon still cowering above me, breathing heavily.</p><p>Everything looks peaceful, too peaceful.</p><p><em>“Did I just imagine all of this?” </em>I take a look at the dragons’ paws and immediately convinced of the opposite.</p><p>His scales are speckled with blood, though it’s barely visible due to the colour of the scales.</p><p>His paws, claws and head are coated in blood, it looks like he just had the feast of his life.</p><p>The dragon takes a step back and lies down, clearly exhausted.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you okay Arya?” </em></strong>He asks with great concern in his voice.</p><p>I nod solemnly and sit up. <em>“I-I just need some comfort right now.” </em>I whimper quietly.</p><p>The dragon licks his chops, cleaning off the blood and, hopefully, mud that stuck to it. I spot something that might be pieces of fabric stuck between his teeth.</p><p>Once the dragon is done, he lifts one paw and gestures me to come closer. <strong><em>“Come hither then little one.” </em></strong>He attempts to smile warmly but notices that the way he currently looks probably isn’t doing him any good.</p><p>I nod slowly and crawl up to him. He immediately puts his paws around me and pushes me against his chest.</p><p>I press myself against his scales and another whimper leaves my lips.</p><p>I shiver and quiver, quickly rubbing my upper arm in the hopes of warming up even just a little, I hadn’t noticed that I cooled down so much while lying on the ground.</p><p>The dragon sees me shiver and is quick to lift me off the ground and move me to his side, where he then wraps me in his tail. I appreciate his effort to warm me up. <em>“T-Thank you.” </em></p><p>As his body heat slowly spreads throughout mine, I feel an overwhelming weakness overcome me.</p><p>Just as I’m starting to feel warm again, I drift off and wake up in the real world again.</p><p>I try to roll onto my back but immediately feel a sharp pain shoot through my back.</p><p>I groan and clench my teeth as I power through the pain and force myself to lie flat.</p><p>How had I become so stiff over night? I must have spent the entire time incredibly tense. Or is it the after effect of yesterday?</p><p>Some stretching luckily alleviates most of the pain and I manage to sit up.</p><p>I shake my head and rub my eyes. <em>“And so, day two begins.” </em><br/>I feel quite a bit more optimistic than I did yesterday evening, it might be only a month if I try hard enough and then I’ll be free again.</p><p>Though an inkling of doubt remains, I simply don’t trust that my father will actually give me back my freedom once he’s “happy” with my performance.</p><p>He’ll probably pull some more bullshit from his ass just to torture me some more.</p><p>A look at my alarm tells me it’s just about time to get up.</p><p>With a sigh I get up and start my usual routine, then head off to school.</p><p>The day turns out to be just like any other until the school day ends, and I have to head home instead of going to the library.</p><p>Neither of my parents are home when I get back, I use that time to arrange my desk such that it looks like I’ve been very productive already.</p><p>Then I take out an empty sheet of paper and grab a pen, time to start writing.</p><p>I feel quite excited but also unsure, I have no clue how or where to start.</p><p>I lean back in my chair and stare at the wall. <em>“It’s probably best if I just pull up a memory first.”</em></p><p>With the plethora of memories at my disposal, picking one turns out the be harder than expected.</p><p>It takes me a couple minutes to finally settle on one, it happens to be the same one that gave me the idea to start writing them down to begin with.</p><p>I see myself standing atop a hill at the edge of a city, overlooking a gigantic forest some time during autumn.</p><p>I nod slowly and try to keep the mental image as I open my eyes and turn my attention to the paper.</p><p>I grab a pen and start to write down what I’m seeing.</p><p><em>I stand on top a grass crested hill, a chilly breeze blowing in my face. Behind me the sun sinks into the skyline of the city, tinting everything a shade of orange. Before me lies a vast forest, speckled with red and orange autumn colours.</em><br/>I put my pen down and reread what I had just written.</p><p><em>“Not great but not cancer either.” </em>I dive right back into my memories and continue writing out the images that run past my mind’s eye.</p><p>I wind up losing myself almost entirely in my thoughts, my hand flying over the paper without me having to even think about it.</p><p>Suddenly I hear the front door open and jump a little. I quickly turn my head to look at the clock. It’s four pm already.</p><p><em>“How time flies…”</em> I take another look at what I had written. It’s only about two full pages but then again, why do I care about how much I’ve written?</p><p>I hear someone head up the stairs and quickly shuffle a few things around to make it look like I was actually doing homework.</p><p>My heart begins to race as I hear footsteps in the hallway, I try to focus on the exercise I had randomly picked but can’t concentrate on it.</p><p>I hear the door to my room open and begin to just write whatever, hoping that he won’t look over my shoulder.</p><p>For a few tense moments I feel him stand in the doorframe as I quickly scribble away while holding my breath and staring at the paper with empty eyes, praying that he’ll go away soon.</p><p>Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I hear him grumble something that almost sounds like an approval, then the door falls shut again.</p><p>I sink into my chair and breathe out, this is going to be really difficult if I freeze up like this every time.</p><p>Once I took a couple deep breaths and gathered my thoughts again, I return to my writing and luckily my father leaves me alone for the rest of the day, though that doesn’t keep me from panicking every time I hear someone come up the stairs.</p><p>The hours pass quickly and before I know it, I hear both my parents head to bed.</p><p>After a quick dinner I quickly pack my stuff for tomorrow. As I’m cramming stuff into my backpack, I find my writing efforts in my hands. I sit down on the floor and quickly skim through it.</p><p>There’s a ton of spelling errors and the form isn’t the greatest either, overall, probably a barely passing grade if I were in school right now.</p><p>Not that that matters, what matters is that I managed to distract myself while looking busy.</p><p>With a satisfied smile, I slide the eight odd pages into my backpack too and zip it up, then head to bed.</p><p>Luckily, I’m spared of nightmares for that night and get to enjoy my some unusually peaceful dreams.</p><p>The next couple days turn out really similar, though I begin to be less tense when I hear someone come upstairs. I become pretty experienced at shuffling my papers around to actual school work when I hear the stairs creak but still can’t bring up the focus to actually do anything other than mindless scribbling when my father checks on me.</p><p>Fortunately, he doesn’t go farther than my doorframe and keeps it to one or two visits per day at most.</p><p>Throughout the weekend I spend almost the entire day writing, at this time I also notice that I might be having a problem soon. All the time spent writing stuff down results in me using much more paper than usual and my parents might get suspicious when I suddenly need a new block every week instead of every month.</p><p>Thus, I decide to steal me some printer paper, my parents always keep tons of it around and use quite a bit of it so the couple dozen extra pages should be barely noticeable.</p><p>One day, as I’m about to go to sleep, I decide to read through what I’ve written out so far. Just to see how bad it actually is.</p><p>As I’m lying in bed and skim over what I’ve written so far once again, I notice how instead of a bunch of short texts, I managed to somehow string them together into a cohesive story. It didn’t take much filler to lead from one memory into the other either.</p><p>
  <em>“Curious how well my daydreams work together, I always thought that if I were to put them all together, they’d just make a jumbled mess.”</em>
</p><p>I put the by now quite respectable pile of paper aside and soon after, drift off to sleep.</p><p>My dreams have luckily mostly been peaceful, occasionally my father makes an appearance but that one dragon is usually not far away and tears him apart quickly. I however appear to have lost my ability to harm him or do anything for that matter. I’m completely helpless against his mental clones.</p><p>While I’m mildly upset about it, I did quite enjoy tearing him a new one after all, but in the end, I can’t do anything about it.</p><p>This continues for a while longer, somehow, I wind up almost content with my situation. Outside of the tense five to ten minutes whenever he comes to check on me, I don’t mind being stuck in my room too much.</p><p>Some more time passes without much happening, I’ve filled some hundred pages by now and am fully immersed in a world of my own making. Turns out I do quite enjoy it, though I don’t feel I’ve gotten any better at writing.</p><p>One day, I walk through the front door as usual and begin my routine of throwing my jacket over its hook and putting my backpack away before slipping out of my shoes.</p><p>As I’m turning around to head up the stairs, I hear my father clear his throat somewhere behind me.</p><p>I immediately freeze and after a couple seconds slowly turn around.</p><p>He’s standing in the doorframe to the kitchen, a pile of paper in his hands.</p><p>“What’s this? Explain.” He throws it on the floor just close enough for me to be able to read.</p><p>It’s a chunk of what I had written. He must have gone through my drawers to find these.</p><p>My heart sinks, I feel hot and cold at the same time and my heart races. I’m contemplating just turning around and running away.</p><p>“Answer me.” He snarls.</p><p>“I-i-I…. It’s for my creative writing class.” I stutter and fumble my words without ever looking up from the sheets of paper.</p><p>“Is that so?” He asks with a devious tone. “Last time I checked your school didn’t offer such classes. Or did I miss something since last Tuesday?”</p><p>I feel as if I’m about to faint, why did I forget to check that? My legs quiver and my arms feel weak.</p><p>“What did I say about lying to me you little shit?” His voice is now filled with anger and spite.</p><p>The floor shifts a little as he takes a step towards me.</p><p>I whimper quietly and hold onto the railing of the stairs for support.</p><p>“ANSWER ME.” He yells, now only an arm’s length away.</p><p>I flinch and slowly raise my head while avoiding eye contact. I try to say something, but my brain refuses to form more than word fragments.</p><p>“ANSWER ME.” He yells again, even louder, leaving me with a slight ring in my ears.</p><p>Tears well up in my eyes and what was intelligible stuttering before is now a mess of quiet sobs leaving my mouth.</p><p>“AM I NOT SPEAKING CLEARLY?” His voice cracks because of how loud he’s yelling, I instinctively cover my ears and cower.</p><p>This sends him over the edge, I hear him scream again, just angry yelling this time, then he hits the side of my head with full force.</p><p>I’m knocked to the floor, dazed and confused. Everything spins around me, I can’t form a single concise thought.</p><p>He grabs me by the neck and lifts me up again, when he lets go off me, I just barely manage to keep myself on my feet.</p><p>I feel him glare at me, expecting me to say something but I can’t.</p><p>In his anger he hits me again, this time aiming for my cheeks. I almost fall over again but manage to grab onto the post at the bottom of the stairs. He sees this as an invitation to hit me again.</p><p>His fist hits my nose and stars dance across my vision.</p><p>I lose my grip and fall onto the stairs, my field of view begins to narrow, and everything feels dull and numb, I’m about to black out.</p><p>I can feel him hit me again and again but none of his punches cause any pain anymore, they just register as dull impacts to my head.</p><p>I try to cover my face with my hands, but he just grabs my arms and pulls them away, then continues hitting me. Blood runs from my nose, over my lips and what doesn’t get flung of by his punches flows into my mouth, filling it with the taste of iron.</p><p>I feel my stomach churn and a strong feeling of sickness pierces through my gut.</p><p>I turn around and attempt to crawl up the stairs, at this point I’ll do anything to get away from him.</p><p>He hits me on the back of my head, my head slams into the corner of one of the steps and I fall flat onto the stairs.</p><p>I feel blood seep out of a gash on my forehead and then darkness envelops me.</p><p>When I wake up, my head hurts something fierce. I groan and place a hand on my forehead, feels like there’s a bandage tightly wrapped around my head.</p><p>I slowly sit up, my head pulsing with pain with every heartbeat, my vision is so blurry I can’t make out more than outlines.</p><p>I feel around and notice that I must be lying on my bed, it must be my bed because a hospital room would look and sound different.</p><p>I sit on the edge of my bed and hold my head with both hands, it feels like it’s made from lead, I can just barely keep it up. As I sit there, I notice how dark it had gotten, the sun must be setting already. Had I been out cold for that long?</p><p>After a few minutes of gathering my strength I stand up and stagger to the bathroom.</p><p>I prop myself up on the sink and slowly raise my head to look into the mirror.</p><p>I squint in an attempt to clear my vision but it’s not of much use.</p><p>What I can tell though is that someone wrapped a bandage all around my forehead, almost covering my eyes as well and that it’s got a palm sized red stain in the middle of it. Under where I presume my nose to be, I see two streaks of crusty, dried blood and the colour of my cheeks looks off too.</p><p>I scrape the scab off and haphazardly clean the sink, then stumble back to bed.</p><p>I let myself fall onto the mattress face first and regret it as soon as my face hits the bed, a searing pain explodes in my head. I inhale sharply and groan while clutching my head.</p><p>It takes a couple minutes for the pain to settle down and I carefully turn onto my side.</p><p>While staying as still as I can I try to make sense of what happened and how I ended up here.</p><p>The constant pulsing headache makes it quite difficult to think straight and thus it takes me a long time to make sense of things.</p><p>
  <em>“I must have blacked out when I hit my head on the stairs, then someone, probably my mother, dragged me to bed and patched me up while I was still out, then I woke up here.”</em>
</p><p>I don’t dare think about anything that came before me blacking out, not that I could if I wanted to. My thoughts freeze in terror every time I begin trying to recall it.</p><p>Eventually I fall asleep, though my sleep isn’t restful, it’s a very light sleep and I wake up just about every little noise. Every time, my heart races and I feel cold sweat on my back but moments later I black out again, for fifteen maybe thirty minutes.</p><p>The night passes extremely slowly, though I can’t make out the clock for the longest time I can just tell that time isn’t passing.</p><p>Not that I have the energy to care much about it, my mind is still too hazy for more than basic thoughts.</p><p>Eventually I notice how it’s slowly getting lighter outside, by then my vision has also finally cleared. <em>“No permanent eye damage, lucky me I guess.” </em></p><p>The headache has gone from a sharp, searing, pulsing pain to more of a dull throb.</p><p>Sometime in the earlier morning hours, about an hour after the sun has risen, I am snapped awake by the sound of the door opening. I can feel panic rise quickly. My heart tries to break out of my chest with how hard it’s beating, and my breath runs fast and flat.</p><p>I somewhat calm down when I see that it’s my mother with a glass of water and a pack of headache pills.</p><p>I slowly sit up as she walks up to the bed.</p><p>Wordlessly she puts the glass onto my nightstand and holds out a single segment of the pill wrapper for me to take.</p><p>Just as wordlessly, I take it, put the pill in my mouth and swallow it. I can’t be bothered to grab the water.</p><p>I can tell my mother is a little surprised and her eyes shift over to the glass, then back to me.</p><p>“How are you feeling?” She whispers after a brief pause.</p><p>I groan and drop back onto the pillow. Why did I know she would say that? When my head hits the pillow, I flinch as a sharp pain shoots through my head.</p><p>“Like garbage.” I grumble once I can think clearly again</p><p>I see my mother nod in my peripheral vision. “Just wait a while until the medicine does its thing. I’ll excuse you off school for the rest of the week.” She turns on her heels and makes her way to the door.</p><p>“Guess I fell down the stairs or something huh?” I see her flinch for just a split second between two steps. <em>“Knew it.” </em></p><p>I spend most of the morning in my bed, I can’t find the motivation to get up, or do anything really.</p><p>Fortunately, I don’t spend all that time with a throbbing headache as the pills take effect after roughly half an hour and I can finally get some proper rest.</p><p>With the pain gone I end up sleeping another four hours and when I wake up, I already feel a lot better. Still a bit confused at times but that’s to be expected, at least I hope so.</p><p>Much to my surprise my father leaves me alone for the entire day, I expected him to show up right after coming home. What for I didn’t know and didn’t want to think about either.</p><p>I try to zone out a couple times but can’t manage to, my focus is simply not good enough.</p><p>Thus, most of my time is spent utterly bored and half asleep, sometime during the later afternoon my mind goes completely blank. My thoughts have completely lost themselves in nothingness.</p><p>I only snap out of it when my mum comes into my room to check on me once more, a plate of food in her hands.</p><p>I acknowledge her with a nod but refuse to even turn my head. She places the plate on my nightstand as well and immediately heads out again. <em>“Should I eat now or later.” </em>The first thought to break the silence in my head in a while.</p><p>When I hear the door to my room fall shut, I slowly turn my head to take look. Coincidentally it’s something I quite like. I purse my lips as I think about it for a moment. I’m not feeling hungry but also haven’t eaten in… I don’t remember when I last ate…Probably north of twenty-four hours.</p><p><em>“Not on the bed though.” </em>I slowly and cautiously make my way out of bed and grab my plate with one hand, the glass of water with the other, then sit down at my desk. I sluggishly eat my dinner and empty the glass of stale water.</p><p>Afterwards I leave it all sitting on my desk and trudge back to bed. As I’m lying down, I notice that I was still fully dressed, hell I must have been in these clothes since yesterday.</p><p>I take a look at my shirt to see it stained heavily with blood, my jeans got some on it too.</p><p><em>“Jeez, my mom will hate me for having to wash these.” </em>I carelessly throw my clothes into a pile and slip under the sheets.</p><p>Even though I did nothing all day I wind up tired much earlier than usual, not wanting to fight it because I see no reason to, I let myself drift off to sleep around ten pm.</p><p>This night is a lot more restful than before. I almost sleep through all of it, only a few times do I snap awake, panicked and full of fear.</p><p>Sometime in the early morning my mother comes into my room once more, breakfast in one hand, a new bandage in the other. I’m wide awake as soon as I hear the door open and for just a moment, I feel the same panic as yesterday rise in me. When I see that it’s just my mother, I sigh a sigh of relief and feel a lot of tension quickly leave my body.</p><p>She places the plate on my nightstand as per usual and then motions me to sit up, then kneels down in front of the bed.</p><p>I take my time to heave myself out of the sheets and once I’ve situated myself on the edge of the bed, she begins to undo the bandage.</p><p>I patiently wait for her to do her thing while bracing myself for the pain that’ll no doubt come when she gets to the lowermost layer.</p><p>Much to my surprise the bandage comes off with little issue, only some parts of it stuck to the pad thingy she put onto the gaping laceration onto my forehead. The cotton pad thing however, has properly stuck to my head with all the blood soaked into it that has now solidified.</p><p>My mother tries her best to be slow and careful while peeling it off, but it still stings like someone is trying to punch a thousand needles into my skull. I grimace and inhale sharply but otherwise stay quiet.</p><p>Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I feel the last corner of the pad break loose, the air feels kind of cold on the exposed flesh beneath and it stings slightly.</p><p>My mother wraps the pad in the old bandage and puts it on the floor, then grabs a new one and places it on my forehead, I notice her trying to figure out how to hold the pad in place while wrapping the bandage around my head and I wordlessly pin the wad of cotton to my head with two fingers. She nods and whispers a quiet “Thank you.”</p><p>She quickly wraps the bandage around my head a couple times, just enough to properly fix the cotton in place. “Thanks.” I mumble absently minded as I poke and prob at the bandage.</p><p>“No problem Arya. Are you feeling better today?” She asks as she grabs the old bandage and stands back up.</p><p>“Maybe? I guess?” I’m not sure how I feel myself, all I know for sure is that I’m alive.</p><p>“Make sure you eat and drink enough, luckily the wound doesn’t look too deep.”</p><p>I nod silently and turn my head towards my nightstand, I’m indeed feeling quite hungry.</p><p>As I’m staring at the food, I hear the door fall shut again, then silence fills the room.</p><p>After a while, I break out of my trance and actually go to grab my breakfast and slowly nibble away at it.</p><p>Later, once I finished my breakfast, I put the plate on top of the old one from yesterday and make my way to the bathroom.</p><p>As I pass the mirror, I notice just how messed up I look. My hair is a tangled mess that stands off in all directions and when I turn to look at my face my heart sinks. My face looks like it got into a traffic accident. I can still see some outlines where blood had dried on my face, my cheeks are red and blue all over, my nose looks sort of crooked, like it might be broken.</p><p>My eyes are bloodshot and the dark circles around my eyes have grown so much darker, it almost looks like I got a black eye or two</p><p>Carefully, I poke the tip of my nose and instantly feel a sharp pain pierce through it. I wince and clench my teeth, it didn’t feel broken when, but the pain certainly makes it seem like it</p><p><em>“Probably heavily bruised or something.” </em>I make a mental note to not scratch or touch my nose in any way for a while.</p><p>I go about my usual morning routine as normal, then go back to bed. While I don’t feel tired there’s nowhere else to be.</p><p><em>“What a fun time lies ahead of me.” </em>It’s merely Friday, it’ll be at least till Monday, probably later though, before I get to go to school again.</p><p>For quite some time, I simply sit on the bed, staring at the wall, waiting for something to happen. Silently, I dread that my father would come and continue what he begun. I struggle to push these thoughts aside, they keep coming back like clockwork.</p><p>Hours crawl by during which nothing happens, the house is probably empty, but I don’t dare leave my room to check.</p><p>The rest of the day passes like this, I consider trying to zone out a couple times but knowing that I might not hear people coming home.</p><p>Just that happens eventually, but no one comes to my room, not for the rest of the day.</p><p>Only when dinner is done does my mother come upstairs to bring me plate plus something to drink.</p><p>Eventually, quite a while after dinner, I start feeling sleepy. <em>“Finally…” </em>I had been waiting since early afternoon. Sleeping was the only thing that felt safe to do.</p><p>As I lie down, my sight falls onto the stack of plates and glasses on my nightstand. <em>“Should probably put those away tomorrow. But I really don’t want to go downstairs.”</em><br/>I turn to face the wall. <em>“Out of sight out of mind.” </em></p><p>Once I manage to distract myself with some more fun thoughts I quickly manage to forget about the plates and fall asleep not long after.</p><p>The next day is more of the same, I wake up when my mother brings me breakfast. My initial reaction of fear and terror is weaker yet again. Mom adds another plate to the stack and asks how I’m feeling and then leaves again.</p><p>After breakfast I sit silently in my room, listening to the sounds around me, hoping to hear my father leave the house so I can be rid of my dirty dishes.</p><p>Around noon I hear someone leave the house, I quietly sneak up to the door of my room, open it as carefully as I can and listen closely. I hope to be able to tell who just left.</p><p>I don’t hear the TV so I’m hopeful that it was my father who left. After a couple minutes and no hint of my father being home, I go back to grab the dishes and quickly sneak downstairs, throw them into the dishwasher and rush back upstairs into my room.</p><p>When I get back to my room my heart is racing, partially from running up the stairs and partially from the rush of adrenaline.</p><p>I sit down on the side of the bed for a moment to calm down. <em>“I shouldn’t be this scared of leaving my room. That’s probably not normal. Then again what is normal in this household.” </em></p><p>Once I calm down, I lie down on the bed yet again and resume my mindless trance.</p><p>The rest of the day passes just the same as the day before.</p><p>Somewhere around ten pm I fall asleep and this time manage to actually sleep through the night, the only thing weird about this night is the absence of dreams.</p><p>When my mom comes in to bring me breakfast that day, she also has new bandages with her once again, and some band aids.</p><p>As she’s undoing the bandage she asks if I feel like I could go back to school already, adding that I shouldn’t feel pressured to do so if I don’t feel good enough yet.</p><p>
  <em>“I shouldn’t feel pressured you say? Then why do you bring it up like this to begin with? Then again I’d much rather be out of here sooner than later.” </em>
</p><p>I just nod to her and otherwise remain silent.</p><p>Removing the cotton pad hurts still but not as bad as last time, it’s more of an annoying sting than actual pain.</p><p>My mother smiles when she pulls of the old pad. “Looks like it’s healing up quickly.”</p><p>She places a much smaller one on my head and tapes it down with two band aids, then wraps two rounds of bandages around my head to hold it in place.</p><p>“That’ll do.” She says as she gets up and leaves the room.</p><p>After that Sunday is much of the same, mindless boredom.</p><p>Finally, the sun sets, and mom brings me dinner, soon after I go to sleep for the day, excitedly setting my alarm for the next morning beforehand.</p><p>Throughout the night I wake up a few times, not cause a noise scared me awake but because I’m excited to go back to school.</p><p>When the alarm rings I’m wide awake in seconds and quickly run through my usual routine. I also make sure to use this time before anyone is awake to put away my dishes.</p><p>The moment I step out the door I feel a huge wave of relief wash over me. While it’s only temporary I’ll be out and “free” for a while. Though I do dread having to answer the questions people will for sure ask</p><p><em>“What isn’t temporary though? Even time as we know it will end eventually.” </em><br/>I quickly make my way to school, where I spend just about the entire day in my little school life bubble, where things aren’t as bad, bearable at least.</p><p>I do get a lot of weird looks for my bandage, but I ignore them and the few that ask get a: “Stupid old me fell down the stairs and hit my head.” As an answer.</p><p>Outside of that, the day turns out quite normal.</p><p>When it’s time to go home I take my sweet time to walk the relatively short distance back home. I really don’t want to go.</p><p>No matter how slow I walk eventually I end up at the front door.</p><p><em>“Ah shit, here we go again.”</em> I slowly turn the keys in the lock and head inside.</p><p>I hear the TV from the living room, meaning that my father is home.</p><p>I close the door as carefully as I can and take off my jacket and shoes as quietly as possible, then sneak up the stairs. All in the hope that he didn’t hear me and that I’ll have some more quiet time.</p><p>Whilst I’m unpacking my backpack to do the little bit of homework that I hadn’t done ahead of time, yet I hear the stairs creak. <em>“Fuck…” </em>I feel my heart quicken and panic rise but somehow continue unpacking as normal.</p><p>I hear the door open behind me. “Thought you could sneak past me?” I can hear the smug grin that’s plastered on my father’s face. “Being a cripple won’t get you out of doing homework or being grounded.”</p><p>My eyes grow wide and I slowly turn around to see him stand in the door, chair in hand.</p><p>“I’ll be keeping an eye on your from now on.” He puts down the chair with the backrest facing me, then sits down, facing me as well.</p><p>I freeze for a moment, unwilling to accept that this is a reality I must live in.</p><p>“What’s the matter stupid? Forgot how to move?” He mocks me and grins smugly. Part of me wants to knock that stupid grin right of his face but I know where that’ll end.</p><p>I force myself to breathe slowly and attempt to keep the panic down by focusing on just my homework and nothing else.</p><p>I sit down at my desk and stare at the paper for a while. <em>“He isn’t there, he isn’t there, he isn’t there…” </em>I keep repeating those three words, over and over and over.</p><p>He loudly clears his throat. “Come on, get going. Homework won’t do itself.”</p><p><em>“Fuck, couldn’t he just stay quiet.” </em>I grit my teeth and try my best to concentrate on the homework I got.</p><p>His sheer presence is enough to slow me down greatly, I keep losing my focus and spiral into panic. What used to take me fifteen minutes takes me an hour as I keep losing track of where I was.</p><p>He keeps tutting and harrumphing every time I do anything he doesn’t like. He never says any words, just makes noises of disapproval.</p><p>The constant stress quickly gets to me, I feel exhausted, scared and just want it all to be over.</p><p>After what feels like an eternity, I finally finish the last of my homework and put it into my backpack.</p><p>“Don’t even think about stopping yet. Keep studying.” He growls from the door.</p><p>Without questioning I take the workbook back out, flip open a random page and keep going. By now I just function, my mind is entirely filled with fear. Whatever the task in the book is, I just automatically do it without thinking about it.</p><p>This torture keeps going all the way until dinner is ready, it feels like years pass in just those few hours.</p><p>“Graciously” my father invites me downstairs with him, for dinner.</p><p>I, being completely burnt out, follow without questioning it.</p><p>During dinner he makes sure to throw in some jabs at how slow I was at doing my homework today, how it’s no wonder I’m so bad at school, how he wonders how I got this far to begin with.</p><p>Towards the end of dinner, he mentions how, seeing that I’m so slow, he’ll have to make sure to keep an eye on me from now on.</p><p>I’ve entirely given up on trying to process anything that’s happening around me and thus only realize the implications of what he said when I’m lying in bed, trying to go to sleep.</p><p><em>“Why, why is my father like this. Why can’t he leave me be?”</em> I whimper quietly and hide myself deeper under the sheets.</p><p>The thought of having to spend just another day like this, or even more, fills me with such dread that I freeze up. My thoughts spiralling deeper and deeper into the dark corners of my mind.</p><p>
  <em>“Maybe I deserve this? No, I certainly deserve this, I must have been a bad daughter. A trash human. A worthless life not good for anything. I deserve what he’s putting me through, surely, he must have my best interest at heart. I just need to be a better person.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But why does he do it like this? I’ve been trying to do better, it would only be until the next preliminary grades, then he would see how much better I would be doing. I’m not lazy, he just always walks in once I’m done with what I need to do and then some.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Why doesn’t he listen to what I say…Why can’t I speak up more?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>If I do, I’m sure he won’t listen, he’s set on me being a bad person, but why? When did he get that impression?”</em>
</p><p>My thoughts keep swinging back and forth like this for a while, in the meantime I always feel his presence looming over me, even though he’s not in the room.</p><p><em>“Don’t think I’ll get to sleep tonight…” </em>I glance at the clock, it’s just before midnight.</p><p>Over the course of the next few hours I keep tossing and turning, trying to get my father out of my mind, I try zoning out, I try thinking about other things, I try everything I can come up with, but nothing works. He’s always there, looming over me.</p><p>Three am passes and so does four am. Around half past five am I decide to give up on trying to sleep and crawl out of bed. <em>“Guess I could try writing…”</em><br/>I sit myself down at my desk and turn on the lamp that’s screwed onto the side of it.</p><p>After some digging, I find the last page I wrote on. I reread the last paragraph to see where I stopped and then grab a pen.</p><p>I shut my eyes for a moment and try to conjure up a memory.</p><p>All I see is my father’s face, no matter what I do, he’s everywhere.</p><p><em>“No, go away.” </em>I whimper in my thoughts. My breath runs flat, and a cold shiver runs down my back. <em>“He won’t go away.” </em></p><p>I open my eyes again in the hope that I won’t see his face anymore.</p><p>While I had my eyes closed, I must have subconsciously started writing. My handwriting is even more garbage than usual. I squint and lift the paper up to decipher what I had written.</p><p>
  <em>Father, father, father, father, go away, father, father, help, father, why doesn’t it stop fath-…</em>
</p><p>My writing got worse and worse, towards the end I can barely make out the letters. <em>“Curious, must have been writing out what I was thinking.” </em><br/>I look at those words for a little longer, unsure what to think of it, then cross them out and attempt to write some more yet again.</p><p>This time I can almost see something, I’m so close, yet I can’t seem to fully immerse myself.</p><p>I keep trying, but my focus is just not there.</p><p>As I keep getting oh so close to slipping into a daydream, I don’t notice that actual tiredness has begun to overcome me. My head keeps dropping and dropping and finally I fall into a rather light sleep, moments later my head drops onto the table.</p><p>For a short moment I’m spooked awake but when I realize that I’m still in my room I immediately try to go back to daydreaming and once again fall asleep.</p><p>A few hours later I’m rudely awoken by the alarm. I groan and try to sit up, only for my back and neck to punish me with searing pain.</p><p><em>“Ow, ow, ow, fuck, ow.” </em>I rub my neck and carefully stretch my back, still not entirely awake.</p><p>Once I manage to shake the confusion and my brain fully wakes up, I wipe the saliva off my cheek and go to my nightstand to turn off the alarm.</p><p><em>“Did I really fall asleep at my desk?” </em>I wander into the bathroom to splash some cold water into my face.</p><p>When I look up into the mirror, I see the imprint of my pen in my cheek and the general flatness on that half of my face.</p><p><em>“I totally did, didn’t I?” </em>I shake my head rub my face, then stumble downstairs to continue my usual routine and head off to school</p><p>The day at school proceeds as normal, but towards the last two lessons, I begin to dread what awaits me at home. Not the first time this has happened but this time it’s different. The dread is much more intense, while it’s usually been a semi strong sting in my gut with maybe a slight feeling of unease to go along this one is much worse.</p><p>I feel like I’m about to vomit, can’t focus, my heart races and my chest feels tight.</p><p>“Arya? Did you not listen?” I am suddenly ripped out of my thoughts by my teachers voice next to me. I turn my head to see her standing next to me. “U-uh no. I think I didn’t.”</p><p>I can see her narrow her eyes for a moment, then she repeats her question. “Does a catalyst affect the final balance of an equilibrium reaction.”</p><p>“No. Only temperature, concentration of the educts and products and pressure affect the equilibrium.” I answer immediately. <em>“How did I not hear her ask me? Even when I daydreamed, I always noticed when she spoke to me, now she even managed to walk up to me. It’s probably not even the first time this lesson that I didn’t hear her. This is becoming worrying.” </em></p><p>She nods, satisfied with my answer and walks back to her desk and continues the lesson. As she walks away the intense dread returns and I fail to keep my focus on class. Luckily, she doesn’t ask me anymore questions and somehow, I get through the last two periods just fine too.</p><p>On my way the sickness in my stomach grows so intense I have to stop several times to take a breath and clam myself down to not have a breakdown in the middle of the street. <em>“Come on Arya, it’ll be hard, but you can do this.” </em>I tell myself and force myself to walk the last hundred odd yards (~140m) I sneak through the front door but don’t even bother trying to go upstairs unnoticed, as I see my father notice my reflection in a window. I trudge up the stairs and into my room to do my homework for the day. For just a moment the sickness and fear go away but as if on cue I hear my father walk up the stairs. With every creak of the steps my heart sinks a little further and my stomach twists a little more.</p><p>I hear the door to my room open and the legs of a chair hit the floor, followed by him sitting down. I would look up from my backpack, but I’m paralyzed, my hands operating on autopilot.</p><p>While I move a bunch of workbooks and folders to my desk, I catch a glimpse of his smug ass sitting in the door, silently watching. I feel tremendous terror but also some anger stirring deep down in me. I wish he’d just go away, or that I could go away, no matter the cost. A quiet voice from a far-off corner of my mind whispers to me: <em>“Why don’t you beat his stupid face to pieces? What’s the worst that could happen? Even death would be a positive outcome.”</em></p><p>Idly, I sort through my homework and flip open a new page of paper.</p><p><em>“Thing is he won’t kill me, he’ll just beat me to the hospital again, then I get to deal with the recovery and after that I’m sure he’ll just find a way to torment me even more.” </em>I answer my own thoughts. The voice stays silent and the little spark of anger fades away, now only fear remains.</p><p>Somehow, even though I’m feeling more terrified than yesterday, I manage to deal with his presence much better and get through my homework without freezing up more than twice. Once I’m done with my homework, I just keep going through my chemistry workbook. I already know that he wouldn’t leave me alone till dinner, so I hope this satisfies him and draws some of his ire off me.</p><p>Eventually dinner rolls around, he goes downstairs, and I pretend to still be busy doing things until I hear them both finish their dinner. When I walk down the stairs, I hear him say something along the lines of:” What took you so long stupid? Couldn’t figure out some basic shit again?”</p><p>“No, I just felt I hadn’t studied enough.” I retort without thinking about it. Immediately I feel my heart skip a beat and face turns red. <em>“Fuck, not again.” </em>I peer in his direction to see his face turn red in anger, he clenches his fist and grumbles something but then, much to my surprise, just goes to the living room. <em>“Huh? What was that?” </em>I sit down at the table, a bit dumbfounded as to what I just witnessed. <em>“Guess he couldn’t get mad at me? That would be a first.”</em> My mother slides a full plate in front of me and I give her a nod of appreciation. She then withdraws to the living room as well and I get to eat in peace.</p><p>I spend my entire dinner and the remaining time till I lie down in bed, thinking about how he didn’t get mad at me, not entirely sure what to make of it.</p><p>That night I’m still kept awake by both the events of the past hour and the fear of what is to come tomorrow but manage to fall asleep eventually.</p><p>Upon the next morning I wake up already dreading the upcoming day. This feeling won’t leave me even in the middle of school day. I catch myself frequently losing focus on class. Often enough I manage to still catch the teacher’s questions but there are still a few times I mess up.</p><p>I notice that the teachers are beginning to look at me weird, as if they are concerned, I half expect one of them to pull me aside at the end of the lesson.</p><p>But alas, nothing like that happens and I get to leave school as usual. On my way home I feel the dread grow stronger yet again, but it never reaches a level where I need to stop. <em>“I wonder if I’m getting used to it?” </em> I think to myself as I walk onto the driveway.</p><p>I go through the usual motions I do when I get home and head upstairs, like clockwork, not five minutes later I hear my father come upstairs to torture me some more but today I can’t get myself to care much. Not that that lessens the fear he causes, I just got better at living with it.</p><p>The rest of the day is much of the same, he watches me till dinner, I waste some time till they are done, then go downstairs to help myself to some food as well, then go to sleep.</p><p>The next day at school turns out to be even worse though, me being too lost in my own mind and not hearing the teachers ask me questions becomes commonplace.</p><p>At the end of the last period, the teacher tells me to stay behind for a bit. I just nod and stay put, I expected this, though I’m not sure what’s awaiting me.</p><p>He walks up to my desk once the last student left and sits down on the one next to me. “You’re being very absently minded Arya, what’s the matter?” He looks genuinely concerned.</p><p>I stare at the table, unsure how to answer his question. If I tell the truth either nothing will happen, or my parents will tell some lies and then I’ll be in a shit ton of trouble with my father.</p><p>“I don’t know…I’m wondering myself.” I say while staring at the table.</p><p>The teacher pauses for a moment, then sighs. “You’re usually a very good student, it’s very atypical of you to not listen.” He tries to hide his disappointment but does an extremely bad job of it. I had a feeling that he was placing a lot of hope in me, saw a bright future for me or something and now that I’m faltering, he’s worrying.</p><p>“I know.” I sigh and shake my head. “I just can’t seem to keep my focus.”</p><p>After another short pause he speaks again:” You really need to try and get this under control. It’ll start to impact your grades heavily soon and with final exam season coming up you need to be at your best.” He has given up on trying to hide his worry and disappointment.</p><p>“I know.” I reply, still not having moved my head more than an inch. “Can I go now?”</p><p>From the edge of my vision I see him nod slowly. I quickly gather my things and head out to go home.</p><p>On my walk home the realization that at this rate I might fail the last year of school sets in. The thought of having to redo this year of school sends me into a panic attack. My chest tightens so much that I can barely breathe, hot and cold shivers run down my back, my vision grows blurry and my heart feels more like it’s spasming than beating.</p><p>I lean against a nearby building and try to force myself to take deep, controlled breaths but it just results in me choking on air. I slowly slide down the side of the building as I see all my hopes and dreams crumble before me. <em>“If I don’t get my grades back up, I’ll have to redo the school year, which means no job, which means no escape. Oh god and my father’s reaction…” </em>I feel like I’m about to faint, my breathing has turned into irregular, heaving sobs. I can feel people looking at me weird but there’s nothing I can do. Panic has a tight grip on me.</p><p>Some lady stops as she’s passing me and asks if she can help me or if I need an ambulance, I just vigorously shake my head, I want to say no but I know that I couldn’t speak even if I wanted to.</p><p>She hesitates for a moment but then goes on her merry way.</p><p>A minute later I manage to force myself into some slow and steady breaths, they’re enough to bring my heart back to a somewhat normal pace and clear my mind enough to get up make the rest of the walk.</p><p>As I’m approaching the front door of my home, I feel the panic rise again but manage to barely keep it contained. While I’m putting my jacket onto the coat hanger, I hear my father say something from the living room. “What took you so long? Got lost?” He cackles loudly at his own joke.</p><p>I’m too terrified to say anything and instead turn to head up the stairs. “Thought so.” I hear him grumble, accompanied by the sound of him getting up from the couch.</p><p>Seems like I won’t even have my five minutes of peace, not that I care, I’m too busy trying not to have a breakdown.</p><p>Homework goes rather sluggishly, giving my father plenty of reason to insult me in his usual ways but it doesn’t affect me, or at least that’s what I tell myself.</p><p>The hours drag on forever and occasionally my façade cracks and a few breaths turn into sobs or gasps.</p><p>“Oh? Is your homework so tough it’s giving you a mental breakdown? We’ll tough shit. You better get your crap together or else…” I hear him crack his knuckles.</p><p>The fear of getting beat up again is enough to paralyze me enough so that it appears as if I caught my bearings again.</p><p>Finally, the voice of my mother releases me from this seemingly endless torture as she calls us down for dinner. Again, my father is first to head down as I pretend to be busy still. Though this time, instead of actually doing anything I drop my chin onto my chest and let all the pent-up anxiety free. Still, it takes a moment before the tears begin to flow. I bury my face in my palms to dampen the awful sobs leaving my mouth.</p><p>Even now, when I feel utterly destroyed, as if there’s truly no way to go on this time, I make sure to not be too loud, out of fear that my father may hear me.</p><p><em>“I can’t do this, I can’t. Now I’m failing school too. If I fail this year…I can’t even imagine what that’ll be like.” </em>Once again, I truly wish to end my existence.</p><p>I consider the possibilities that I got at my disposal but then remind myself that my parents are home and thus will find me quickly and modern medicine will bring me back to the world of the living, just like last time.</p><p>The realization that even death isn’t a valid option right now is quite sobering. I can feel something inside me break and suddenly all things around me feel pointless. My father’s abuse is pointless, my past is pointless, my future is pointless, my whole existence is pointless.</p><p>The stream of tears slowly dries up and my breathing returns to some form of normalcy.</p><p>I listlessly heave myself out of my chair and trot down the stairs, it feels as though I’m experiencing all these things from a third persons perspective, as if I was watching myself over my shoulder.</p><p>I half heartedly shovel my dinner into my mouth and then drag myself back up the stairs and to bed.</p><p>I lie on the bed with my face buried in the pillow for quite a while, trying to find a reason to go on, some part of still won’t give up on trying to find a meaning in my life.</p><p>Eventually I shake my head and roll onto my side. <em>“My life truly is devoid of sense and meaning.” </em><br/>I stare into nothingness. <em>“Why even try, no matter what, everything I do is thwarted.” </em><br/>I sigh and turn to stare at the ceiling. <em>“Wait, I’ve thought that before, several times. Why does it feel so different now? Do I actually mean it this time around?” </em><br/>I decide to not concern myself too much with that, after all what does it matter?</p><p>I keep tossing and turning for a while, trying to fall asleep until I eventually black out.</p><p>When my alarm shakes me awake upon the next morning, I listlessly turn it off and drag myself out of bed. I can’t bring up the motivation to do anything. Begrudgingly, I force myself to go to school.</p><p><em>“What does it matter, I won’t be going anywhere anyhow.” </em>I think to myself as I    trot to work with a downtrodden face.</p><p>At school I at least manage to better focus on what the teacher is blabbing on about. I still lose focus a lot more than I would like to but it’s enough to keep the teacher happy. Not that I care too much anymore, at this point I just try to fade into the background as much as possible and not be bothered by anyone.</p><p>Turns out being the quiet girl beforehand is helping me quite a bit with that. I’ve figured out where to stand to not be noticed by my peers during breaks and how much I need attention I need to pay for the teacher to mostly ignore me.</p><p>The school day draws to a close with surprisingly little happening, hell, it feels like absolutely nothing happened.</p><p>When it’s time to head home I feel the dread rise once again and while it should be as strong as before, if not worse, it doesn’t affect me much anymore. Only leaving me with a slight sting in my gut, probably mostly due to me having given up on life.</p><p>As usual my father watches me do homework, trying to unnerve me every chance he gets. Though he does appear to be annoyed by me not reacting much to his efforts anymore. <em>“Serves you right asshole.” </em>I think to myself as he grumbles something about being so bothered by having to spend all this time watching my stupid ass do benign shit.</p><p>Eventually dinner comes and goes, and I find myself in bed before long.</p><p>I spend a couple weeks in this uncaring state, the anxiety and fear always present as a slight sting in my gut and my father’s oppressive presence hovering over me in my mind.</p><p>At some point as I’m finishing up my homework one day, I realize that it’s not long before the school year will be over and application deadlines must be drawing close too. Even if I manage to pass the final exams, I still need a job to get out of here. Thus, the next time I’m at school I look through the job offerings our school indexed. There’s almost a hundred in total, some aren’t really my thing, stuff like sport coaches for the local gym or tourist guide but most of them sound like I could deal with them. I start by reading through the requirements and am surprised to find that most of them should be within my capabilities. I print out the list of requirements along with the contact addresses. Then, once I’m done with homework, I dig it out and start writing cover letters for each, luckily the additional documents they require are all very similar so I can just make a bunch of copies of what I already had.</p><p>When my father sees me dig out the list of job postings he snorts and laughs. “You think anyone’s going to employ your stupid face? With those grades? Good joke.” He keeps laughing but it doesn’t deter me. Even if every single one rejects me, I must at least try.</p><p>The rest of the day I spend writing one cover letter after the other, each one sort of tailored to what I think the companies might be looking for. At first it takes me a while to write each one as I need to spend a bunch of time thinking about how to word things. After writing about a handful of them I slowly get the hang of things and each successive one takes a little less time. By the end of the day I’ve gotten about a dozen done even with my father trying his best to talk me out of it. He had something demeaning to say about every single one, nothing constructive just insults aimed at getting me to stop. But I won’t let him deter me.</p><p>Over the course of the next couple days I manage to write almost fifty full applications and then spend all my breaks at school putting together the required documents and send them off to the companies. <em>“And now we wait.” </em>I think to myself as I slip the last one into the mailbox on my way back home.</p><p>I expect it to take a couple weeks at least to hear back and try my best to just go about my usual routine and ignore my father. As the days turns into weeks, he begins switching things up a little, instead of just insulting my intelligence and whatnot he also starts to smack me on the back of the head when I take too long for something, it’s not enough to properly hurt or make me see stars but also stronger than a “playful” tap.</p><p>At first it gives me flashbacks to the time he beat me up and I only barely manage to keep my act together and not have a breakdown but soon enough I barely register the impacts anymore, though I find myself flinching every time he raises his hand which he apparently loves to abuse just to see me flinch and cower.</p><p>Finally, the first replies from the companies come rolling in, with each of the four letters I open I feel my heart race and hot shivers run down my back. <em>“Each one could be my ticket out of here.” </em> </p><p>The first one is a rejection, I feel my heart sink a little. <em>“It’s okay Arya, it’s only the first of four and even then, you have another forty or more coming back soon. I hope.” </em><br/>Second one is a rejection as well, third one too. As I’m opening the fourth one, I can barely contain the shaking of my hands.</p><p><em>“Aaaaand…”</em> I quickly skim. <em>“Rejection. Fuck.” </em>I drop my arms and sigh. <em>“Well there’ll be more in the mail soon, I hope.” </em></p><p>“Aww did stupid get rejected? Not sure what else you expected. Your inept ass will never get a job anywhere, not even as a pencil holder in a fast food restaurant.” I hear my dad yell from the doorframe to the living room, he must have watched me the entire time.</p><p>I don’t honour him with a reply and instead take the letters upstairs with me. Obviously, it isn’t long before he follows for the usual six hours of staring at me doing whatever, though today he gives off a strong aura of smugness. He must be really happy with me getting rejected.</p><p>I feel anger stir deep within me but decide to ignore it, after all nothing I do gets me anywhere.</p><p>The day after more letters come in, only two this time, both rejections as well. They fortunately hurt a lot less than the first four and while I’m close to giving up hope, I cling to the possibility of getting at least one positive reply in those forty odd applications.</p><p>Over the course of the week this trend continues, all but one of the twenty replies that I get are rejections for varying reasons. Some of them I expected, I already had a feeling that I didn’t have the specific skills they wanted but applied nonetheless. Some others I also expected as they were low skill jobs and with my pretty good grades that probably feared that I would just use that job as a springboard to go further up the totem pole, forcing them to look for a replacement before they wanted to.</p><p>One of the twenty replies however, turns out to be an invitation to an aptitude test. We were already told about them in school, something to put what you wrote on your application to the test. After all people could write whatever they wanted there.</p><p>It’s not a job that was on my list of favourites, but I could see myself working as a programmer for quite a while. We had been able to dabble just a bit in some basic programming languages at school and while I certainly wasn’t exceedingly good at them, I was decent at least or so I hoped.</p><p>I am overjoyed and quietly squeal in joy when I read it, much to the chagrin of my father. “This must have been a mistake, this clearly can’t be meant for you.” He says, but there’s no mistaking it, it says my name on the letter head and in the opening.</p><p>That doesn’t keep my father from trying to dissuade me from insisting that it must be a system error or otherwise.</p><p>No matter though, even if it truly was a mistake, I’ll be damned if I didn’t at least show up. Sure, if they were to send me back home if it were an honest mistake that disappointment might just kill me, but I don’t care.</p><p>With the test another week out, I spend my time anxiously waiting, wishing that I had a way of travelling through time.</p><p>During the week my father has a many more mean things to say than usual, probably to tear me down and plant doubts in my head. While that would have normally worked, the prospect of a possible job helps me push these thoughts aside and focus on the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.</p><p>Finally, after what felt like months of waiting, the day of the test comes. The time was fortunately placed about an hour after school went out for the day, so I had enough time to take leisurely walk to the company. Their facility wasn’t too hard to find as it sported a huge “miniature” windmill near the entrance, it must be at least sixty feet (20m) tall. At its feet stand a bunch of red plastic letters, spelling out the name of the company, Procon.</p><p>Their office reminds me a lot of the one I saw at Seasol, if a bit more modern. The lady at the entrance directs me to a group of chairs in the foyer to wait among a small group of six other people that arrived just before me.</p><p>They are all busy making idle chitchat. I place myself slightly on the outside of the group and just listen to them talking about where they come from, what they think might be tested for, how they hope it won’t be too difficult and some other benign things. <em>“Seems they all applied to the same position huh. Might have competition this time around. Wonder how that’ll do for me since I got rejected at Seasol when I apparently was the only one competing for that position. Then again, they might have also interviewed other people too. No use worrying about it. Whatever will happen happens.” </em> I think to myself while idly staring at the tiles.</p><p>Suddenly I feel someone nudge my shoulder. “Hey, don’t I know you?” Says the guy standing to my right.</p><p>I jump a little and look around with panicked eyes. “Hey, hey, calm down.” He says and laughs a little. I slowly look him up and down. He’s a bit shorter than me 5’9” (175cm) or thereabouts, about as lean as me if a bit more muscular, with blonde hair and brown eyes. His face is quite pronounced he appears to be about my age maybe a year younger or older. It could very well be that he goes to the same school as me, but I don’t pay much attention to my peers looks.</p><p>I make a non-committal noise and shrug. He too looks me up and down, then shrugs too. “I could swear I saw you hang around, what school are you from?”</p><p>Just as I’m about to answer someone in a suit walks up to our small group and introduces himself as the head of recruiting and asks us to follow him.</p><p>The group sort of automatically splits up into three pairs and me trailing behind at the end, all of us have suddenly fallen quiet as we mentally prepare for the test ahead of us.</p><p>As we walk through the complex the pre exam anxiety starts getting to me, my heart pounds against my ribcage and my knees feel a bit wobbly.</p><p>We’re led to a room not too dissimilar to a classroom, probably used for meetings normally but with the tables arranged in rows I feel like I just walked into class. I can tell others feel just like me as they exchange slightly surprised looks.</p><p>We all sit down with an empty space between us and the recruiter begins to hand out the tests, they look quite daunting as there’s quite some visible thickness to them. <em>“Shit, what is this? Don’t we have only an hour for this?” </em>I feel my heart sink and my hands start shaking. <em>“What did I just get myself into?” </em></p><p>He walks back to the front and tells us that the test is made of several segments, we get fifteen minutes for each and that we should try to complete as many of the tasks in each segment as possible. He says not to expect being able to finish them and that at the end getting correct answers will matter more than getting many answers semi correct.</p><p>He tells us to grab a pen and open the first page.</p><p>With my heart racing I quickly flip open the first page and am relieved to see that about half the page is taken up by empty space that we can use to write out answers. The first segment appears to be simple equations and mental arithmetic, nothing too harsh.</p><p>I manage to quickly work my way through about a handful of pages while scribbling down the bare minimum, so I don’t lose track of what I did.</p><p>I manage to get two thirds of the way through before we’re told to put down out pens. I take a deep breath and take a look around to see how far the others got. I’m surprised to see that they all only got about halfway through at best. <em>“Is that good or bad?” </em>I ask myself but I don’t get long to think about it as the recruiter tells us to flip to page twenty for the next block, same rules apply.</p><p>This one’s all about simple writing simple programs apparently, one task per page and an A4 sheet with some basic instructions. <em>“I’ve seen those before in school…lucky me.” </em>I scan the first task. it’s asking me to write a short program to print a user given input a user defined amount of times.</p><p>After a short read of the given instructions and their brief descriptions I quickly go to work and just half a dozen lines of code later I’ve cooked up something that might do what I want. <em>“If only I had a way to compile the bloody thing and test it. Oh well, no time to worry. Moving on.” </em>I flip the page to be greeted by another similarly complex problem to solve.</p><p>This continues for the next fifteen minutes until he again tells us to put down our pens. I’ve managed to make it about two thirds through once again, barely not finishing my seventh problem. Again, all of us look at how far the others got. I’m quite shocked to see that one of the guys appears to have made it all the way through. <em>“Hot damn…” </em></p><p>As expected, the recruiter tells us to flip to page thirty for the third and second to last block.</p><p>This one is two tasks per page again and appears to be all about coming up with solutions to more complex problems, this time without code examples, only an explanation.</p><p>The first task is designing an algorithm to sort a list of inputs with a length of n where n can be between ten and ten million.</p><p>I puff up my cheeks and tap my chin with my pen. <em>“I’ve read about that at some point… What was it again?” </em>I rub my temples and grind my teeth. I’m so close to recalling what it was.</p><p><em>“Quicksort. That’s what it was.</em>” I place the pen on the paper and start writing away.</p><p><em>“Choose a pivot in the middle of the array, move all elements smaller than the pivot to the left and all larger ones to the right. Afterwards a pivot is placed in the middle of the left halve of the array and the process is repeated for the left halve of the array, then the same occurs on the right. Repeat until the next halve of the array has a length of one or zero.”</em> I nod to myself and move onto the next task ahead. It asks me to design a pathfinding algorithm, again it takes me a moment to remember but then I recall us getting taught about the Dijkstra algorithm.</p><p>As it turns out this entire segment is about algorithms of varying nature, each of these questions has me scratching my head for quite a bit and some I need to skip entirely as I’m not familiar enough with what they ask of me, in the end I only finish five of the ten given tasks.</p><p>Finally, we’re told to move on to the last segment. Seeing how the last three got harder each time I’m already dreading this one. <em>“Maybe I’m not made to be a programmer…” </em>I think to myself as I flip to the fortieth page. Much to my surprise this one’s just asking us to copy a text from a to b while fixing spelling and grammar errors. I can tell by the expression of the others that they are just as taken aback as I am. <em>“What’s the purpose of this?” </em></p><p>As if to answer my thoughts the recruiter says:” This segment is to test your ability to work fast and precise. Some errors in the texts are obvious, some are more hidden. What matters here is speed, however we will still subtract points for both every mistake in the text, be it that you copied it without noticing or made one while copying. You have fifteen minutes. Go.”<br/>We all hastily grab our pens and start scribbling away. <em>“Seems my writing exercises weren’t in vain huh.” </em>I manage to effortlessly blast through the given texts, most spelling mistakes are blatantly obvious to me and so are the grammar errors.</p><p>With some effort I manage to blast through just about all of it in the allotted time, I’m just about to start on the second to last sentence when we’re told down to put down our pens.</p><p>The recruiter goes around to collect the tests and thanks us for our attendance and that we’ll be hearing back from them in about a week or two.</p><p>He escorts us back to the foyer and wishes us well as he corrals us out the door.</p><p>After a short awkward moment after getting rushed out the group quickly splits up with everyone heading home or wherever.</p><p>After just a few turns I’m already on my own again, seems everyone came from somewhere else.</p><p>While I’m strolling past the buildings to the left and right of the road, I start to forget about all the things currently going on and for the first time in a while begin zoning out again.</p><p>I find myself flying above the streets that I’m walking along. I can even spot myself below. <em>“That’s a first.” </em>I keep watching myself for a while before I decide to drift off and go elsewhere. <em>“Haven’t been around this part of the city before, might as well go explore a little.” </em><br/>I circle around the few skyscrapers that there are, all seem to be office buildings. I watch the people working inside as I drift by.</p><p>Seeing these people like that reminded me of the ant colony we have in school. A weak smile creeps across my face and I finally decide to move on.</p><p>In a couple minutes I’ve left the district behind and moved on to the suburbs which will soon be replaced by the forest that encloses this city.</p><p>I land on the first clearing that comes by and start my trek deeper into the forest on the lookout for any of the usual dragons I run into. <em>“Anyone here?” </em>I mentally yell into the woods but only my echo replies. <em>“Strange.” </em></p><p>I keep on walking, sometimes it took them a while to show up, maybe this is just one of those times.</p><p>My search turns up empty handed and before long I’m snapped back into the real world by turning the corner onto the driveway of my home. <em>“Oh great.” </em><br/>I ponder if I should risk wandering off to elsewhere but decide it’s not worth the consequences.</p><p>As I head inside, I’m accosted by the sound of my father’s voice once more. “Oh look, our favourite idiot is back from bombing her aptitude test? What was it for anyway? Glass holder? I’m sure you would somehow manage to drop it even if they glued it to your hand.”<br/>He laughs his usual self-satisfied laugh.</p><p>I shake my head and drag myself up the stairs. <em>“He’ll see when the results come back. Even if they don’t take me as an employee, he’ll see I’ll have done at least decently.” </em>I plop myself down at my desk and start doing my homework for the day.</p><p>Much to my surprise my father leaves me alone for quite a while. <em>“How come? Why is he not here to torment yet? Is he getting bored of it or is this just a cruel game? Is he trying to keep me in a perpetual state of fear that he might come up any moment now?” </em>I spend the next hours anxiously waiting for him to come to my room, because if he isn’t here yet that means something is off and if something is off that means I’m for sure getting beaten.</p><p>Hours pass and the day draws to a close, still my father is nowhere to be seen. <em>“Why?” </em>I wonder quietly, I almost want to go check but as I’m about to get up I remind myself that that would just somehow get me in trouble. <em>“I should be thankful that he stayed away for the day.” </em></p><p>With some time left to waste before I could sneak downstairs to grab me some food, I decide to dig out the story I had been writing.</p><p>I try to zone out and get myself into the story but can’t seem to get into the flow of it. Whatever I end up writing feels wrong. Frustrated, I tear up the page I had been writing on and chuck it in the bin. <em>“Ugh, why…This used to be so easy and now I can’t get the hang of it no matter how I try.”</em><br/>Disheartened I put the papers back and sit back in my chair, staring at the ceiling until I hear my parents walk up the stairs.</p><p>Once I hear the bedroom door shut, I groan and hoist myself out of the chair, then head into the kitchen. I force myself to shovel the plate my mother left behind for me into my mouth, then I drag myself upstairs once more and drop my body onto my bed, crawl under the sheets and eventually fall asleep.</p><p>For the next few days, it’s back to normal, I go to school and when I come back home where my father watches me do homework while trying to torment me.</p><p>Though once again something changed. He gets even more physical. Not only does he sit closer, he also slaps my head a lot more. Sometimes without reason even.</p><p>While I don’t feel like it affects me much mentally, I notice myself flinching every time someone moves too quickly near me.</p><p>The usual suspects at school are quick to pick up on it and abuse it. Laughing at me every time I flinch. “What is it Arya? Scared of movement now? Are you really such a pussy?” They say, they probably said more but I didn’t listen anymore.</p><p>Luckily, they leave me alone when I hide in the library, probably because they know that they wouldn’t be tolerated. They also couldn’t laugh at me because it’s a library and where would be the fun in that.</p><p>All the while, letters keep coming in with rejections, I’m starting to wonder why but can’t figure out any reasonable explanation. <em>“Why? Why would they reject me outright? Even the jobs the jobs where I tick all the boxes don’t even go for an interview or aptitude test…At least there’s Procon.”</em></p><p>Finally, after almost a week I hear back from Procon. It’s a letter in a normal envelope, I can’t tell if it’s good or bad news by just looking at it.</p><p>I quickly rip it open and start reading.</p><p>“We are saddened to inform you that, while you performed well on our test, we could not take you on. We will…” I stop reading at that point as I feel my heart shatter, though externally only my lips quiver a little. Normally I would probably be bawling on the floor now.</p><p>Somehow my father still notices. “Oh boohoo. Did they reject you? Told you so. Should have never applied in the first place. What a waste of perfectly fine paper.” He shakes his head. “Don’t you know that you’ll never amount to anything. I’ve told you time and time again. Trust me I know what I’m talking about.” I grip the paper hard and try to keep down the tears. <em>“Fuck him. Don’t listen. His words don’t mean anything. Don’t cry. Not now.” </em>I just barely keep my composure and head up the stairs. My fingers still gripping the letter hard enough to almost tear it in half.</p><p>Once I’m in my room, lying on the bed. I take a few moments to just breathe slowly and steadily in an attempt to calm myself down and clear my head, then I finally flip to the second page of the letter. “Test results” It reads in big bold letters at the top. They are broken down by segments, with the first page giving you an overview of all four segments, the tasks within and the overall score you achieved in each one.</p><p>At the bottom it reads. “Final score: 90,6%” I grit my teeth and sigh. <em>“Used to do better than this…Should have prepared probably.” </em>I skim over the scores I achieved in each segment.</p><p>Arithmetic’s: 98,3%, Programming: 89,0%, Algorithms: 82,4%, Writing: 92,5%</p><p><em>“That’s kind of what I expected. I assume they just valued programming and algorithms more even though the advertisement didn’t say anything about that.” </em><br/>I chuck the letter onto my nightstand and roll myself out of bed to do homework for the rest of the day.<br/><em>“Hate my life.” </em>I think to myself as I’m haphazardly chucking shit onto my desk.</p><p>The stairs creak and I already know that it’s my father. <em>“Great, here we go again.” </em><br/>The door to my room opens, he plops himself down an arm’s length away from me and snarls: “Why am I not seeing you do homework? You should really be trying harder after that bombed aptitude test.” Internally I roll my eyes but keep a straight face on the outside.</p><p>Wordlessly I start doing my homework and then some more as usual. As I go about my homework, I see that his demeanour is slightly different, he looks even more on edge than before, as if he’s going to lash out any moment now. <em>“Come on, do it. I don’t care what you do to me.”</em> I think to myself.</p><p>Eventually he fucks off again to eat dinner and the day continues as usual.</p><p>Over the next week the last few responses to my applications roll in. All but two are rejections outright and those that aren’t put me on a waiting list which appears to just be a different type of rejection.</p><p>At this point I’ve entirely lost hope of getting a job to get out of here. <em>“What now?” </em>I think to</p><p>Myself one day as I’m lying in bed. <em>“Can’t get a job, school is about to end for me and going to a university will not get me out of here. Can’t get a stipend to fuck off to elsewhere and study there either because my parents make too much and won’t pay for me to move to a different town. Even if they did, I’d still be dependent on them.” </em>I sigh and shut my eyes, a single tear rolling from my right eye. <em>“The only option I’m left with is running away it seems.” </em>My imagination returns to the many times I was running around the towns and forests of my fantasies, all on my own. <em>“If only it would be that easy…Still would need to eat, drink and somehow keep myself clean.” </em></p><p>I spend some time trying to think of a way to guarantee some comfort without any roofing over my head or any regular income, eventually dozing off.</p><p>With only two more months to go any no new job offerings being posted at school, or anywhere really, I’ve all but given up on life. At school I just sit around, waiting for the bell to ring, any time someone talks to me it’s just white noise to me as I stare into nothingness with dull eyes.</p><p>My father still watches me do homework, though he’s started slapping my head hard enough to nearly make me faceplant into the desk, leaving me with a constant headache.</p><p>I’ve all but stopped thinking once again, I walk through life like a zombie, not paying attention to anything. Every day feels like a week and every week drags on for months. Rarely a day passes where I don’t consider jumping in front of a car, but I always remind myself that I wouldn’t want to burden those poor souls with such memories. Thus, I end up waiting for me inevitable demise, be it natural or not. It’ll come eventually, that I am sure of, but it feels like it’s eternities away. I try starving myself but after five days of only drinking the bare minimum to not pass out I remember that death won’t be instant, and I’ll just be taken to the hospital to be patched up and sent back home again. During those five days my mother seems to grow increasingly worried, she even comes to my room one time to check on me, but her voice is barely more than a buzzing at the edge of my consciousness.</p><p>When I start eating again, she stops being openly concerned with my wellbeing and leaves me alone once again. Not that I care much, all I want at this point is to be left alone to rot in the prison that is my home.</p><p>As the finals draw closer, I start to wonder how my grades would look like, not that I can do anything about them anymore, sure the finals matter to a degree but at most they change your grade by plus or minus one. That is as long as you don’t fail outright.</p><p>In one of my few clearer moments I think back to a time where I hadn’t given up on life. I feel the lyrics of one of the songs I listened to a lot ring truer than ever.</p><p> </p><p>Sands of time<br/>Running through my fingers<br/>My life slipping away<br/>And I feel nothing<br/>Swallow the tears<br/><br/>Eat the pain - It's worth the degradation - Eat the pain<br/><br/>Behind the smile I feel nothing<br/>I reach out to touch, but I'm not really there</p><p> </p><p>I feel like I want to cry but all I can muster is an exasperated sigh as I shove those thoughts aside and my mind returns to a thoughtless haze.</p><p>Eventually the day of my graduation comes, neither of my parents show up, while I expected my father to be absent, I at least expected my mother to be there. <em>“Why am I even here?”</em> I wonder.</p><p>I’d much rather just leave and never come back to this hell but alas I have to attend, or so I tell myself at least. I spend the entire ceremony sitting in a far-off corner, staring off into nothingness, just like I spent the last few months. Finally, the procedure concludes, and people start leaving. All the commotion around me doesn’t even register with me, I’m completely lost in my thoughtless trance. Only once everyone had left and a teacher pokes me to make sure I didn’t fall asleep do I snap out of it and get up to leave.</p><p>It’s already quite late as the graduation started in the later evening hours and took nearly three hours to complete. On my way back I happen to run into four of my usual school tormentors. I don’t realize who they are until I’m just a few feet(1,2m) away <em>“Oh great.” </em>Is the only thought that crosses my mind as I keep marching onward.</p><p>Them being emboldened by both, me being along and alcohol, possibly other drugs too, they decide to turn around and take me into their middle. Talking shit at me, pushing me around and trying to trip me. I somehow avoid falling over even when they push me hard and just keep walking on.</p><p>This apparently bothers them greatly and one of them grabs my arm and snarls: “What’s the matter with you being out so late and alone anyway, why don’t you come with us so you’re safer.”</p><p>I try to free myself from his grip, but his hand is like screw clamp. “Trust me you don’t want to make a fuss.” His friends growl and start dragging me along. I don’t dare protest and quietly go along. <em>“What is happening.” </em>Is the first conscious thought to cross my mind. <em>“Whatever it is I probably deserve it…”  </em>As they drag me along, I feel one of them touch my behind, I try to squirm away but their grip on my arms keeps me from getting too far with that. “Hey now, hold still or you’ll regret it.” Says the guy holding my right arm.</p><p>They drag me to one of their homes, their parents apparently had left to go do whatever and they were using it to party or whatever.</p><p>One of them locks the front door, for a moment it just strikes me as odd but then I realize what they are probably planning on doing and my heart sinks. Panicked, I begin to try and think of ways to flee.</p><p>Suddenly I’m hoisted onto the couch and one of them bends over before me to be face to face with me. “Play along and don’t make it worse for yourself, capito?” He flips open a rather sharp looking pocket knife and points it at me. I nod slowly and try to not make it obvious that I’m panicking.</p><p>He returns the nod and stands up, then yells at one of his friends:” Get our guest something to drink, we’re not rude now are we.”</p><p>One of them scurries off to the kitchen and I hear some cupboards open.</p><p>In the meantime, the other three return their attention to me. “Say aren’t you feeling hot in that jacket, here let me help you out of it.” He moves in on me, clearly intending to do more than just take off my jacket. I try to back away but quickly find myself sitting on the edge of the couch. I quickly look around to see if I could run away and jump through a window but before I can make up my mind, I feel him grab my hand. “Hey now, don’t be so shy.” He says in a fake sugar sweet tone. I freeze and feel my face turning red. “Gee you must be really hot, let me help you really quick.”<br/>He undoes the zipper of my jacket and as he opens it up, I feel his hands touch me in all the wrong places. “See wasn’t so bad.” He says with a smug, self-satisfied grin.</p><p>He chucks my jacket aside and stays put next to me and grabs my hand again.</p><p>In the meantime, the other dude finished making drinks and comes back into the room with a tablet carrying five glasses of clear liquid.</p><p>He hands one to each of us and then they all say their cheers and take a sip, only I stay quiet.</p><p>They all turn theirs eyes towards me and leer at me. “Drink up Arya, it’ll cool you down.” They all take another sip. As I watch them drink, I notice that one of them is swaying a little even while standing still. He must already be quite drunk.</p><p>I’m still frozen in place, unable to move. “That wasn’t a suggestion idiot.” One of them sneers.</p><p>I stop thinking on my own for a moment and just obey them, slowly lifting the glass and taking a careful sip. I hadn’t tried alcohol until then but already felt like I wouldn’t like it based on the smell of it. As expected, it tastes as shit as it smells and I have to force myself to swallow, at least it doesn’t taste like they spiked it with anything, or did they? Maybe that would be preferable.</p><p>I put down the glass again and try to crack a smile. “All of it.” The dude who put me onto the couch growls.</p><p>Without a second thought I pick the glass back up and empty it as fast as I can, wiping my mouth with the back of my free hand. “Looks like some can swallow quite well.” Say the guy who made the drinks and they all laugh at his <em>hilarious</em> joke.</p><p>I notice that the guy sitting on my right has lifted my hand off the fabric and is trying to move it to somewhere. I quickly yank it from his grip and hold it close to my chest. He looks disappointed and when I look down, I can tell that he was clearly trying to place my hand on his crotch.</p><p>Suddenly I feel my face turning even redder than before and heating up. <em>“Must be a side effect of the alcohol…” </em>My mind starts feeling hazy too, but not in the familiar way I’m used to.</p><p>While I’m busy with my thoughts, one of them sits down on the arm rest of the couch next to me and puts his arm around my shoulder almost falling onto me in the process. “Don’t be so quiet, why don’t you open up some. Tell us some about yourself.” He had stayed quiet until now, that was probably for the best as he’s slurring his words so much that they’re barely eligible, though something feels off about his speech.</p><p>He tries to take another sip from the glass with shaking hands but instead of the glass meeting his lips he ends up spilling the contents all over us.</p><p>The other guy who had help onto my arm but otherwise stayed quietly immediately jumps in. “Oh no, mind if I help you out of your shirt?” He quickly rounds the table while his eyes clearly not fixed on my face and his arms outstretched. I recoil and pull my knees up to my chest. “No thank you I’m fine.” I hastily reply with fear in my voice.</p><p>“Guess she likes being wet.” The same guy who made the <em>tasteful</em> joke about swallowing says.</p><p>Again, his words are met with roaring laughter.</p><p>With my nose right above a where some of the liquid hit my jeans, I notice that it smells of absolutely nothing. <em>“Fuck they gave themselves water didn’t they.” </em></p><p>I look over at the guy on my left and notice that his hands aren’t shaking anymore. <em>“Fuck you, you were just pretending too.” </em></p><p>“Come on don’t be a bitch, let us have some fun too.” Says the guy to my right as he suddenly yanks on the bottom of my shirt, though he doesn’t get far.</p><p>My eyes grow wide and in a moment of panic I jump up, over the table and try to make a run for the door.</p><p>Before I can get far the guy who initially grabbed me catches me by the back of my shirt and this time, I can’t keep myself upright and fall over. The impact knocking the wind out of me for a couple seconds. Before I can recover, I feel something hit my head hard, harder than anything my father could over muster.</p><p>Stars dance across my vision and then I’m embraced by nothingness. In my last conscious moments, I beg to never wake up again.</p><p>As fate would have it, I will not be this lucky and a few hours later I awaken again.</p><p>At first, I’m too dazed to think clearly, all I know is that my body hurts in places it shouldn’t and that there’s the sound of people leaving, and someone is saying something along the lines of:” Did you really have to knock her out, would have been much more fun otherwise.”</p><p>Then I hear the sound of a door fall shut and I’m left in silence.</p><p>I lie still for a while, unable to move out of pain and fear. <em>“What happened to me…” </em>My hips are trying to kill and my behind hurts like no tomorrow too.</p><p>After some time, I manage to lift my head off the floor and look down to myself, only to immediately drop my head again. <em>“No, no, no, no, no, NO.” </em>I’m completely naked. <em>“Fuck, no, this can’t be, this is just a dream, a cruel shitty nightmare.” </em>I hope to wake up, back in my bed. Some fifteen minutes later I still haven’t woken up, the pain hasn’t gone away, nothing has changed at all.</p><p>I whimper quietly and shed a single tear.</p><p>A car drives by outside and the sound of it makes me spasm in terror. <em>“Can’t stay here, what if they come back…” </em>Tears well up at the sheer thought of what else they might try to do with me.</p><p>I roll around and try to push myself off the floor, only to notice that the carpet I’m lying on is wet and so is my entire upper body, it stinks like a public toilet too. I look down to see a big yellow stain in the white carpet. <em>“Oh no…” </em>I shake my head and force myself to think of how to escape this place and get home. My eyes fall onto the window facing the street. Without thinking about it I get up and grab the nearest heavy thing and chuck it through the window. The sound of glass shattering feels the room, followed by a cold breeze.</p><p>But the hole is much too small for me to fit through, I quickly smash large parts of the window with my bare fists, cutting them up badly in the process. Then I step through the hole, cutting my feet on the shards of glass outside. I don’t care about the pain. I only want to get away and so I begin sprinting down the road as fast as I can. The windchill makes me shiver and feel like my arms have frozen solid, my feet hurt with every step as I leave a trail of bloody footprints on the pavement. But I can’t stop running. Somehow, I find my way home and try to open the door, much to my surprise the handle pushes down easily, and the door opens, my mother must have left the door unlocked since my father never checks the locks.</p><p>I rush inside, slam the door shut behind me and collapse. My heart feels like it’s about to explode, my legs and feet burn like never before. Even though I’m breathing as fast as I can it still feels like I’m going to suffocate. I hear the door to my parent’s bedroom open. <em>“Please don’t be my father, please don’t be my father.” </em>I try to slowly crawl away, into the kitchen but my legs give out and I fall flat instead. I hear the stairs creak and try to drag myself along the floor, then the sounds of someone walking down the stairs suddenly stop. A few seconds later they come back, much faster though, then I hear my mother gasp somewhere behind me.</p><p>I turn my head to see her standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring at my back. “I’m sorry” I whimper and try to push myself off the floor again.</p><p>She quickly runs up to me and helps me up, then walks me back to the stairs and up into the bathroom, all the while muttering: “It’s okay, don’t worry.” Over and over again.</p><p>I flinch a little with every step, there must still be glass stuck in my feet, how come I didn’t feel it this much before.</p><p>She opens the door to the shower, and I manage to take the last two steps inside and immediately drop myself onto the floor. Mom quickly grabs the shower head and turns on the water, then waits for it to get warm and then starts washing me off. I just let the hot water wash over me, rinsing off the sticky residue that got left behind when whatever was on me dried.</p><p>At first it feels like the water is scalding hot but even then, the heat feels more comforting than painful.</p><p>My thoughts are still a mess and it’s probably better that I can’t think straight, the prospect of actually processing what happened today feels scarier than anything I’ve ever felt.</p><p>Eventually my mother hands me the shower head to keep washing myself off as she heads to my room and grabs me new clothes. She places them on the edge of the bathtub, then turns and looks at me. “Would you rather be alone right now, or should I stay?” She asks quietly. I stay quiet for a moment then whisper:” You can go, I’ll be alright.”</p><p>She nods and starts heading out, then stops at the door. “If you need me, I’ll be downstairs in the kitchen.” I nod slightly, then resume staring at the wall.</p><p>I hear her walk downstairs again, then spend the next thirty minutes just sitting in the shower, slowly rocking myself back and forth, letting the water run over me, giving some form of warmth and comfort.</p><p>Eventually I can gather the courage to try and get up, only to immediately fall back down as soon as I put some weight onto my feet. <em>“Aaaaah fuck, ow, ow, ow, ow.” </em>I see the water running down the drain turn a light shade of red. <em>“Right the glass shards…” </em><br/>I take a look at the soles of my feet to spot about four fingernail to post stamp sized pieces of glass. I carefully try to dig them out with my fingers, every time I touch them, a sharp pain shoots through my feet but eventually I pull the first one out. The second hurts a bit less as it’s smaller and not lodged in as deeply. As a side effect of my picking at my wounds so much they start bleeding a lot more and soon the shower looks like a murder scene.</p><p>Eventually, after much flinching and gritting my teeth I finally pull out the last shard of glass. I wait a little longer for the bleeding to calm down, then drag myself out of the shower, to the cabinet under the sink where we keep the bandages and all that first aid stuff.</p><p>I leave a small trail of blood, probably ruining the floormats but I don’t care.</p><p>I grab the first roll of bandages and cotton balls that I see, place the cotton on the open wounds and wrap the bandages around my feet. Once I feel that my feet are bandaged up well enough, I try to stand up again. It still hurts a lot but at least I can stand now. I grab a nearby towel and slowly dry myself off, then slip on some clothes. It feels nice finally having something to cover up, it also appears that my mother picked a comfier set.</p><p>I slowly stagger to my bedroom and crawl under the bedsheets. For the first time I feel calm again, not safe, but at least the fear and terror have faded, and my heart rate has sort of normalized.</p><p>I hear my mother come back upstairs again, probably because she heard me leave the bathroom, she pokes her head into my room and asks:” Are you alright? Or at least as alright as you can be.”<br/>I nod towards her and she shows a slight, gentle smile in return. “Good, if you need anything please don’t hesitate to wake me up, I’ll be on the couch.” I nod once again, and she leaves me be for the night.</p><p>Even though my mind is blank I can’t fall asleep, my thoughts simply refuse to settle down. The hours drag on forever and I still lie in bed, wide awake, trying to keep myself from trying to process what happened. I’d much rather just forget about it or shove it into a far-off corner of my memory and never look at it again.</p><p>Eventually, tiredness overwhelms me, and I simply pass out, not that falling asleep gives me any peace. I wake up in the usual forest of my dream world, chased by shapeshifting beings wearing the faces of those men and in the centre of the pack stands one that towers above all of them, wearing the face of my father. I try to run from them but no matter how fast I go, how much I try to manipulate my dream in my favour, they are always right behind me, waiting for me to slow down to tear me apart.</p><p>I feel them reaching for me with hands, tentacles and claws, their forms ever changing.</p><p>Fear keeps me running from them for what feels like an eternity, I can feel the sun pass overhead dozens of times if not hundreds. Still they are never further away than an arm’s length. My legs want to give out with every step I take, my heart wanted to stop beating long ago but still, the adrenalin in my veins keeps me going. How I haven’t died from exhaustion is beyond me, it must be part of this inescapable nightmare.</p><p><em>“Can’t…keep...running…must…keep…running…” </em>Is the only conscious thought I can form. I want to scream for help, but I can’t I’m too busy breathing faster than should be possible and if I weren’t borderline hyperventilating, I know that I couldn’t get out a single sound.</p><p>Suddenly I trip over an exposed root, immediately these horrors are right on top of me, tearing apart my clothes, my skin and my flesh. The pain is so intense I feel like I might pass out. They tear open my abdomen and rip out my innards and I have to watch all of it, I feel their claws and hands dig around my innards. I want to scream in pain but when I open my mouth no sounds leave my lips, the only sound I can hear is the tearing of flesh and organs.</p><p>They strip me to the bone, then start breaking them apart, starting at the limbs, in seconds they’ve reduced me into just a blood covered torso, writhing on the floor. Suddenly they stop, just loom above me, watching me struggle and squirm in agony.</p><p>I try to beg for the sweet release of death but as my lungs are destroyed only gurgling leaves my mouth. The creatures and laugh and point at me, taunting me for being weak.</p><p>Even with my body reduced to bloody bits it doesn’t show any signs of dying. <em>“Just let me die…”</em> Is the first conscious thought to cross my mind in a long time. Tears start rolling from my eyes. I hear them laughing about how I’m crying, and in these moments, it hurts almost as much as my wounds.</p><p><em>“Anyone…please…” </em>I silently beg at the sky.</p><p>But my pleas go unanswered, and so I lie in the mud, constantly dying and not dying simultaneously.</p><p>Every minute feels like an hour, though to me time might as well not be passing at all.</p><p>Eternities pass, I’m finally freed from this eternal nightmare, I wake up drenched in sweat, my throat sore and my entire body aching, especially my feet.</p><p>I’m breathing heavily and my heart beats just as fast as it did yesterday. I don’t dare to move or even speak. <em>“A-am I awake?” </em> </p><p>I very slowly raise one arm and slightly pinch myself. I jump and flinch as I feel a slight sting. <em>“I’m awake…finally” </em>I try to flip the blanket aside only to notice that I must have kicked it off during the night. I look over the edge of my bed to see find my blanket there in a heap on the floor. I quickly nab it off the floor and throw it over and pull it up to my nose, the weight of it makes me feel just a little safer. I feel like those men might be hiding under my bed or in the shadows in my room.</p><p>After some time, my mother comes into my room to check on me, she even brings me some food.</p><p>I nod her as thanks for the food but otherwise stay put under my blanket.</p><p>“Should I check on your feet?” She asks me with a gentle tone. Again, I reply with a quick nod.</p><p>She leaves the room for a bit and I hear her rummage through the cabinets in the bathroom, then she returns with bandages and disinfectant in hand.</p><p>I already don’t like the outlook of her cleaning the wounds, but I also wouldn’t want them to get infected.</p><p>She carefully undoes the bandages I hastily wrapped around my feet and removes the now dark red cotton pads. “This might sting a bit.” She says as she carefully pokes at the wound with a cotton swab, probably to clean out the residual dirt that got stuck.</p><p>I inhale sharply as a sharp sting pierces my feet with every touch of the swab.</p><p>As she has to dig a little deeper into the cuts I start writhing in pain. “I’m sorry I have to do this to you. I’m trying my best to be careful.”  I nod again and cling to my blanket.</p><p>Finally, after what felt like an hour, she’s done cleaning my wounds. “It might get a bit worse now.” She grabs the bottle of wound disinfectant. <em>“Oh god…” </em>I think to myself and grit my teeth.</p><p>The burn of the disinfectant makes me nearly cry. It feels like someone is sticking a burning match into my foot.</p><p>I whimper every time I know she’s about to go at it again. The pain makes the torture of her pulling the shards of glass seem almost pleasant.</p><p>Eventually that is done too, and my mother wraps my feet up again, it still stings a bit from lingering disinfectant but not even close to as bad as it was.</p><p>She weakly smiles at me. “If you need anything just yell, I’ll be right there for you.”</p><p>“Mhmmm.” I mumble in agreement and pull the blanket up until it almost covers my eyes.</p><p>My mother slowly leaves, looking over her shoulder to check on me one last time as she leaves.</p><p>I spend the next hours waiting for the pain to die down and trying not to process what happened. It quickly becomes a cycle of me trying to supress the memories, slowly pushing them into the back of my mind, a few minutes of quiet and the memories trying to resurface. Rinse and repeat over and over. All this is accompanied by hot and cold shivers running down my back and my heart trying to burst from my chest.</p><p>In a short moment of clarity in between cycles I grab my breakfast and slowly nibble away at it, trying to distract myself by paying awfully much attention to every teensy detail involved in eating a piece of bread. The obvious ones like the flavour and texture of it but also stuff like the pattern and distribution of white dots in the salami, the amount of seeds on the crust, the change of texture as I chew and the feeling of food going down my throat.</p><p>No matter how slow I try to go though, eventually my plate if empty and I return to hiding under the blanket and continuing the struggle of not trying to think of what was done to me yesterday.</p><p>Turns out fighting your own memories is rather tiring, I fall asleep some time during the early afternoon hours and only jump awake when I hear my mother open the door to my room.</p><p>“Shhh, it’s just me.” She whispers as she slowly walks further into the room, holding my dinner in one hand and new bandages in the other.</p><p>“Feeling a little better?” She asks. “You mean my feet or me in general?” I meekly whisper in return. She pauses for a moment then says:” Both.”</p><p>“My feet are fine I guess…” Is all I can muster to say before choking on my own words. Luckily, she doesn’t push any further and only nods solemnly.</p><p>“Can I check on your feet once more? Just to make sure they aren’t getting infected.” She asks as she puts the plate down on my nightstand.</p><p>I quickly nod and pull the blanket over my head until my feet are exposed.</p><p>She undoes the bandages from yesterday and I feel her mess with my feet for just a short moment. Much to my surprise most things she does to my feet barely register as more than a gentle touch only once or twice to I feel a slight sting when she moves my foot in certain ways.</p><p>Soon I feel her wrap my feet in a new set of bandages and once that’s done, she carefully pulls the blanket over my feet again. “Seems you might be lucky, doesn’t look like they’ll get infected.” She smiles weakly. “If you need anything, you know where to find me.” She kneels down next to the bed and runs her hand through my hair. For just an instant I can see a glimmer of sorrow in her eyes.</p><p>She quickly averts her eyes, gets up and leaves without another word. I quietly sigh as I watch the door fall shut behind her, then, after a few more minutes of thoughtlessly staring at the door, I grab my dinner and listlessly start eating.</p><p>Once my food is done, I resume the all too familiar cycle of fighting with my memories until I fall asleep from mental exhaustion.</p><p>The next day turns out to be just like the one before, and so is the one after. I wake up some time around noon, when my mom brings me food, she checks on my feet and redoes the bandages, then follow some eight or nine hours of me fighting with my memories. Then my mother brings me dinner and leaves me to my own devices until I fall asleep.</p><p>It’s not long before the days start blending together. I can’t tell what time of day it is most of the time and I don’t even bother trying to think about weekdays.</p><p>The only positive thing during all this is the fact that my feet indeed didn’t get infected, it’s quite a miracle to me, seeing how I must have run for miles, barefoot, with shards of glass in my feet.</p><p>On the other hand, we have the dreams that come to visit me every night, oh god the dreams, or nightmares much rather. I stop remembering them after the first few times, but I always wake up exhausted, panicked and drenched in cold sweat. The blanket never stays on the bed and by the look of the duvet cover I must be squirming and struggling lots every night.</p><p>The few that I short moments I still remember of those nightmares are enough to make my heart quicken and cold shivers run down my back.</p><p>At some point I remember that it must have been ages since I last showered and in a short moment of clarity, I even manage to get myself to roll out of the bed and make my way to the door but just as I place my hand on the handle I freeze. <em>“What if my father sees me. Why hasn’t he come to torment me in so long? What if he’s just waiting right around the corner out there? Waiting for his moment to strike.” </em>Suddenly, my knees feel weak and my hands tremble. I can’t bring myself to open the door. Intense panic overcomes me, and I quickly turn around, jump onto the bed and throw the blanket over myself and hide under it. The sudden movements must have fucked with my feet as I can feel a dull pain pulse through them that makes thinking straight hard, which I actually appreciate in these moments as it keeps the panic at bay for just a bit.</p><p>Another week, or has it been two already? Come to pass, by now my feet have mostly healed up and my mother stopped putting bandages on them a day or two ago. And I finally muster up the courage to ask my mother to help me to the shower, she obliges without question.</p><p>She helps me walk to the bathroom, then let’s go of me at the door. She shoots me an asking glance, whether she should come into the bathroom with me or wait outside. I slowly shake my head and take a step into the bathroom. She slides the stack of fresh clothes into the room behind me as I close the door.</p><p>It takes me solid fifteen minutes to gather the nerves to take off my clothes. I feel so weak and vulnerable without them. I quickly hop into the shower and turn on the water. Somehow the feeling of hot water flowing over my skin makes me feel a little safer. For a while, I just let the water run, enjoying the feeling of the dried sweat washing off and the comforting warmth.</p><p>Before long I find myself sitting at the bottom of the shower, water raining down from the showerhead. Somehow in these moments my mind goes quiet for the first time. There’s no fear, no worry, no memories trying to resurface. Only calm quiet.</p><p>Eventually though, the time is more than ripe for me to actually wash myself.</p><p>At this point my hands have turned into a wrinkly mess and it’s starting to affect my feet too.</p><p>It takes me some time to bring myself to wash myself, as having to touch myself certain places feels revolting to me.</p><p>Eventually I take a deep breath and slowly turn off the water, in the last few moments of water dripping out of the shower head and onto me I mentally prepare to step out of the shower cabin.</p><p>The moment I push the door open I feel my heartbeat speed up and the panic quickly returns too. I contemplate whether I should dry myself off or not and quickly decide to just rush it and throw on some clothes as soon as possible. Only two minutes later I slowly open the door to the hallway, peeking around the door and then around the doorframe to make sure my father is nowhere in sight.</p><p>A sigh of relief leaves my lips as he’s nowhere to be seen. My mom is still standing on the opposite wall, staring into nothingness. She looks kind of lost, the way she’s slouched over against the wall.</p><p>Quickly, she snaps out of it when she notices me opening the door and helps me back to my room. As I step inside, I notice that she changed my bedsheets while I was under the shower. “Thank you, mom.” I mutter under my breath and quickly slip under the covers.</p><p>She smiles warmly and nods. “No problem Arya, it’s the least I can do for you right now. I’ll bring you dinner soon okay?”</p><p>“Mhmmm.” Is the only reply I can muster</p><p>Mom leaves my room once again. While the fear and panic, that have been accompanying me, make a swift return they don’t feel as strong anymore, I still can make the occasional clear thought.</p><p>It does leave me wondering why I notice this change now, I’m almost certain that just having a shower shouldn’t have this kind of impact on me. <em>“Maybe it’s been slowly changing over time and I’m just now noticing it? Could be similar to how you don’t notice yourself growing I guess.” </em><br/>I don’t concern myself with thinking about it much more and just try to enjoy the semi peace and quiet for the time being.</p><p>After some time, I hear my mother come up the stairs once more, probably to bring me dinner.</p><p>I try to crack a smile as she walks in, though it’s weak and fake she reciprocates it. She puts the plate down and sighs as she looks down at me. “It’ll all get better eventually.” She says quietly.</p><p>I slowly nod. I seriously doubt it’ll ever get “better”.</p><p>She leaves me again and I eat my dinner some time later. As I’m putting back the plate after I finished, I notice that there hasn’t been a pile of plates building up like last time, my mother must have been taking them with her when she brings me new ones, unlike last time. <em>“Thank fuck, no need to go downstairs.” </em><br/>I lie back down and resume my usual staring at the ceiling while fighting with my memories.</p><p>Over the course of the next couple weeks not much changes. My mom helps me to the shower every so often, brings me two meals a day and in between those things I spend my time in bed. As time passes it sort of becomes easier to keep the memories down. It feels like they’re pushing less and less to be at the top of my consciousness.</p><p>Eventually I even find myself spending some time with my thoughts idling, nothing taking up any of my mental capacity.</p><p>Sometimes I contemplate if I should get up and do something but never end up going through with anything. I simply lack the motivation to do anything more than rot in bed, after all what is there for me to do? I’m out of school, have no job, no friends, nothing, I have absolutely nothing.</p><p><em>“Maybe I’ll just die at some point. Maybe my body will start agreeing with my brain and just give up trying to exist.”</em><br/>At some point I start to notice some changes again. While the past two or three weeks had been pretty stable, I’m starting to feel a little sick and weak. <em>“Is my sedentary lifestyle getting to me? Is this my body starting to give out? One can be hopeful.” </em><br/>I don’t think more of it until it gets to the point where I start losing sleep over it. <em>“Did I catch something? Some kind of stomach bug? Where from though?” </em>It gets to the point where I wake up in the middle of the night with stomach cramp so strong, I whimper every time the muscles twinge.</p><p>And while I feel like I have to throw up, nothing ever comes of it. Until one day that is.</p><p>I wake up one fateful morning, feeling sick as per usual but today it feels different.</p><p>Not worse necessarily but somehow, I have this feeling that this time I’ll actually throw up.</p><p>I heave myself out of the bed and quickly make my way to the toilet. I kneel down in front of it, put my arm onto the seat and lean forward.</p><p>I can feel my stomach convulse and spasm, I gag, and an acidic burp escapes my mouth.</p><p>Things quiet down for a minute then I feel my stomach cramp stronger than before.</p><p>I double over as I feel my stomach contents rush up my throat. The pungent smell of stomach acid fills my nose and a strong sour taste fills my mouth as my stomach empties itself into the toilet bowl.</p><p>I expect everything to be over once my innards run out of stuff to throw up but even once I’m only throwing up air and dry heaving it doesn’t stop.</p><p>Several more minutes pass before my stomach final calms down. I groan and slowly push myself up off the toilet. My legs feel weak and wobbly and my head spins, but I somehow manage to stay upright.</p><p>I shake my head and rub my eyes in the hope that it stops my head from spinning. When I open my eyes again my vision is quite blurry, probably from applying too much force but I can still make out a shape standing in the doorframe. “<em>Looks like my mother.” </em>I think to myself and then try to turn to head to the sink and wash out my mouth.</p><p>I shouldn’t get that far however, as I lift my left foot of the floor to take a step forward, I feel myself falling backwards. I try to catch my balance again but it’s far too late, I’m already in free fall.</p><p>I hear my mom gasp, followed by the sound of her leaping forward to catch me.</p><p>She barely manages to get her arms under me and while she can’t keep me from hitting the ground, she does soften my landing.</p><p>I try to get up almost immediately, but she quickly holds me down. “What happened Arya?”</p><p>“Haven’t been feeling well, threw up and then felt weak.” I mumble as I try to ignore the acrid taste in my mouth.</p><p>My mother helps me sit up and grabs the toothbrush holder cup and fills it with water. “I noticed that you were feeling off, are you feeling better now at least?”</p><p>She hands me the cup and I quickly swish some toothpaste flavoured water around my mouth and spit it into the toilet.</p><p><em>“Ugh, much better.” </em>I groan shake my head again, I’m still dizzy but at least my vision is mostly back to normal.</p><p>“Nope not really.” I say to my mom and try to push myself up off the toilet seat once more.</p><p>My mom grabs my arms and helps me up, then tries her best to support me.</p><p>“That’s no good.” She mutters. “I’ll see if I can get you some medicine. For now, just go brush your teeth and lie back down. I’ll get you some new clothes. Can you stand on your own for now?”</p><p>I slowly nod and stagger over to the sink. Once I’m able to lean onto it I feel much safer and less wobbly. “Very good, I’ll be right back.” She says and quickly rushes out.</p><p>I look at myself in the mirror for a moment, my hair is a bloody mess and my face pale and haggard, did I really let myself go this much?</p><p><em>“No matter, just going to brush my teeth and lie back down, I’ll take care of myself whenever this is over. If I don’t die beforehand.” </em>I grab my toothbrush and with some struggling manage to squeeze some toothpaste onto it.</p><p>As I’m slowly scrubbing my teeth my mom comes back with a new shirt for me, she flushes the toilet and sits herself down on the edge of the bathtub, watching me with concern in her eyes.</p><p>Once I feel like my teeth are clean again and the sour taste has faded away, I wash my mouth once more and then pull my shirt over my head and chuck it aside.</p><p>My mom hands me the new one and whilst I throw it over my head I look down at my tummy, wondering how much weight I had lost. I freeze for a moment when I notice that my stomach isn’t as flat as it used to be. <em>“Did I gain weight?” </em>I think to myself and furrow my eyebrows.</p><p>“Is something wrong Arya?” I hear my mother say from behind me. “I-I don’t know.” I stutter, as I try to figure out what the fuck this could be.</p><p>“Can I see?” She asks and I slowly turn to face her, my shirt still awkwardly thrown over my head and shoulders.</p><p>I hesitate for a moment, I suddenly feel uncomfortable and unsure. “Ah it’s nothing.” I say, my voice wavering quite a bit.</p><p>“Are you hurt? Are you sure you’ re fine?” I hear her ask with concern and scepticism.</p><p>“Yes, it’s nothing, just looks like I gained weight in weird places. Nothing to worry about.”</p><p>I put on the shirt and try to not think any more about it.</p><p>When I turn to head back to my room, I notice that my mom has gone completely pale, her eyes wide and her fingers digging into her thighs. “Mom? Everything alright?”</p><p>She takes a moment to respond. “Can you just let me see, I need to be sure.”</p><p><em>“What concerns her so much?” </em>I wonder and pause briefly, I can feel my heartbeat speed up, though I’m not entirely sure why. Must be because I’m sensing her panic and it’s affecting me too.</p><p>I lift the front of my shirt just high enough to expose my tummy. “See nothing to see ther-“</p><p>I’m interrupted by her whispering “Oh god.” Under her breath.</p><p>She jumps up and goes to get something I’m not entirely sure what yet. In the meantime, I look down at myself to have another look, what could be making her panic so hard?</p><p><em>“Certainly, doesn’t look like normal old fat but what is normal about me?” </em>I haphazardly poke at it and keep wondering. <em>“Feels wrong too…”</em> My body and mind freeze as the realization begins to dawn on me.</p><p><em>“No. Fuck. No. This can’t be. No. No.”</em> I feel my heart drop and sinking feeling spreads through my gut.</p><p>Suddenly my mother grabs my shoulder and turns me to face her, she’s got a pregnancy test in her hand with a pleading voice says:” Take this, now, please.” She quickly leaves the room and shuts the door behind her.</p><p>“Fuck.” I mutter as the door falls shut. I already know what the result will be.</p><p>With shaky hands I open the packaging. I try to read the instructions, on the third try I think I finally understood how it’s supposed to work.</p><p>Even with how incredibly easy it is to use I take a while to go through with it because I’m in denial.</p><p>What follows are the most agonizing minutes of my life. The test only takes two minutes to show results, but these two minutes feel like two eternities.</p><p>I’ve never stared at anything this intensely in my life. I can feel every heart beat and hear every sound. My senses have been heightened to levels I thought were impossible just by this little strip of chemicals in a plastic package.</p><p>With every passing second, I dread the results more, I consider just throwing it away and living in denial of possibly being pregnant, but I can’t bring myself to do that.</p><p>Finally, the lines start showing, for just a moment I think that only one is becoming visible but when I look again the second one is clearly visible too.</p><p>My hands cramp and I double over as a sting shoots through my body, the pregnancy test falling to the floor with a clatter. “No.” I whimper weakly. “No.” I repeat over and over again. My breathing quickly deteriorates into sobs. With every grain of doubt being swept away all the memories that I tried so hard to repress come flooding back. I get to relive all those terrifying moments and vividly imagine what must have happened while I was unconscious.</p><p>I quickly break down into a crying mess, I want this to stop but I can’t make the thoughts stop, they are too strong.</p><p>I hear my mother rush into the room, from the edge of my vision I see her pick up the pregnancy test. She sighs a sigh of defeat and buries her face in her hands, I think I even hear her sob a bit.</p><p>I can’t pay much attention to her though, my mind is entirely taken over by the traumatic memories.</p><p>At some points she hoists me off the floor and somehow manages to get me into my bed where I curl up into a foetal position and bury my head between my arms. I just want my imagination to stop and these memories to go away.</p><p>Hours pass during which my mother doesn’t leave my side, she tries to console me I think but her efforts are fruitless.</p><p>Tears have long stopped flowing. My body has simply run out of tears but that doesn’t keep me from sobbing and whimpering.</p><p>At some point I become completely numb to the pictures flashing before my mind’s eye and finally I can stop crying.</p><p>I remove my head from between my arms, they both feel hot and sore, I can also feel a crust of salt on them. I look up at my mother, she looks tired and exhausted, she must have aged a couple years in the last few hours.</p><p>When she sees that I’ve calmed down she looks relieved, even if just for a split second.</p><p>“It’ll be okay Arya, we’ll figure something out.” She says, trying to keep her voice calm. Probably in an attempt to soothe me some more.</p><p>I slowly nod and pull the blanket up as far as I can without covering my mouth. “I just want it to go away. I want this madness to stop.”</p><p>“I do too.” She whispers. “I’ll go make you food, will you be alright for a moment?”</p><p>A sombre “Mhmm.” Is all I can manage.</p><p>My mom slowly leaves, looking over her shoulder before closing the door, her eyes full of sadness. I think this is the most sorrowful gaze I’ve ever seen.</p><p>The fifteen minutes she’s gone are some of the more terrifying ones, I always expect one of those men to jump out of the shadows or come crawling from under my bed, or worse my father come barging in, having found out that I am pregnant.</p><p>When I hear the door open again, I wince hard enough to almost slam my knees into my face, expecting my father to enter the room, fortunately it’s only my mother with dinner.</p><p>She must have seen my panicked expression. “Shhhh, it’s okay. It’s just me.”</p><p>My mom keeps slowly walking towards me, food in hand.</p><p>I poke my head out from under the blanket just far enough to be able to eat and snag the plate from her as it comes into my reach.</p><p>She watches me eat then asks:” Do you want me to stay for a while?”</p><p>I put the plate onto my nightstand and slowly nod. “Please do.” I whisper quietly.</p><p>She grabs the chair from my desk and sits herself down a few feet (~1,2m) from me. Just having her watch over me somehow makes me feel quite a bit calmer and peaceful, it doesn’t make the memories go away but they have less power over me.</p><p>Eventually I feel myself slowly drifting off to sleep and before I know it, I’m fast asleep.</p><p>Not that I want to be asleep though, I had a hunch that this night would be full of nightmares and sadly I was very right. They aren’t the worst nightmares I ever had but they still leave me squirming in my sleep, waking up soaked in sweat and with dried tears on my cheeks.</p><p>Thankfully my mother had decided to stay in my room so that when I wake up, I’m not alone at least.</p><p>She apparently doesn’t sleep too well either, I notice her tossing and turning a lot and sometimes she wakes up as well.</p><p>Eventually the morning comes, though I don’t properly wake up until the early afternoon hours.</p><p>My mother is still asleep, though she must have slipped of the chair at some point, now she’s lying on the floor, one arm over her eyes, the other lying on her stomach.</p><p>I decide to stay put, there’s nothing for me to do anyway. As I’m lying in bed, staring at the ceiling one thought fills my mind. <em>“I’m pregnant with some bastard’s child…” </em>It’s the only thing I can think about.</p><p>I feel defeated, deflated and destroyed. There should be something that I can do about this, but I wasn’t taught anything about abortions or similar in sex ed at school, nor have I read anything about it in current literature.</p><p>I’m starting to wish that I was born around the early 2000s, sure the apocalypse would be close but just having the ability to be rid of this parasite would make it worth the slow and painful death that would come to me fifty years later.</p><p>
  <em>“If there aren’t any official ways to rip this thing out of me, I guess I have to do it myself. I’m sure downing a bunch of alcohol and pills will do the trick, maybe even take me out as well in the process.” </em>
</p><p>My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of my mother groaning as she gets up off the floor.</p><p>I look into her tired eyes and she gazes back, we stare at one another for quite a while.</p><p>Eventually I break the silence by asking:” What now? What do I do?”</p><p>My mother sighs and drops her shoulders. “I-I don’t know…”</p><p><em>“She’s clueless too.” </em>I feel tears well up in my eyes. This is the worse than any nightmare I ever had. I start sobbing again and the first tears roll down my cheek. <em>“No one can help me.” </em><br/>My mother quickly hugs me and pats my back. “Shhhh, I’ll figure something out.” She says in a voice that’s trying to be soothing but failing.</p><p>“J-Just make sure my f-f-father doesn’t f-find out. If he does i-i-it’ll be worse than d-d-death.” I manage to stutter in between sobs.</p><p>“I’ll make sure he won’t hear a word of it.” My mother replies, this time she sounds very serious.</p><p>She keeps cradling me until I’ve stopped crying, not for a lack of sadness but because I realized that tears won’t do anything.</p><p>“I’d much prefer to stay by your side, but I can’t. To help you I’ll have to go, not far though. I’ll be sure to come quickly whenever you need me.” She says as she lets go of me.</p><p>I nod and wipe the remnants of some tears off my face.</p><p>She hesitates for a moment, then quickly walks out of my room and downstairs. She comes back a short while later with some breakfast for me. She watches me eat, then tells me that she’ll be looking to see what can be done.</p><p>With those words she leaves yet again, leaving me to the suffocating silence that fills my room.</p><p>I try to think of happier things, or other things in general, anything but the fact that I’m pregnant.</p><p>My struggles turn out futile however and soon I give in and just let my thoughts be free.</p><p>I spend hours imagining how I could be rid of this thing in case my mother comes up empty handed. Occasionally I look beneath the covers, at my tummy. It looks even more swollen than before. An unfounded seething hatred against the lump of cells growing within me slowly fills my mind. <em>“It’s your fault. You little pile of garbage put in this situation. My life already sucked enough. Why did fate have to bestow you onto me?” </em><br/>I drop the blanket and sigh in frustration. There’s nothing to be done right now, I’ll just have to be patient.</p><p>As such, I spend the rest of the day waiting for any kind of news.</p><p>Eventually my mother comes upstairs, dinner in hand. I look up to her with hopeful eyes. <em>“Please bring good news, please bring good news. Please…”</em></p><p>She shakes her head slightly, then drops her chin to her chest as a sign of defeat.</p><p>“But I haven’t given up yet, I’m trying to pull some strings but won’t hear back until tomorrow by the earliest.” She mutters quietly.</p><p>“Is there really nothing I can do? I don’t want to be sitting here all helpless.” I plead with her, barely containing the tears that are trying to flow yet again.</p><p>She shakes her head without looking up. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>She places the plate on my nightstand and leaves the room again.</p><p>“Fucks sake.” I grumble as I reach for my food.</p><p><em>“I really don’t want to be patient right now, but I guess there’s nothing else for me to do.” </em>I quickly scarf down my food and resume idly staring at the wall.</p><p>Some hours later I end up drifting off to sleep, half expecting the horrible nightmares to return.</p><p>And return they did but differently than I expected.</p><p>Instead of my father bursting into my room and continually beating me to a pulp or those men coming back to continue what they started I wake up in my bed, the room feeling awfully bright.</p><p>For a moment I wonder what is wrong but then I notice this feeling of something moving in my abdomen.</p><p>I look downwards to see that my pregnancy bump had grown a lot, probably to an eight- or ninth-month state.</p><p>I feel kicking and punching, while they don’t hurt the knowledge that I couldn’t get rid of this leech leaves me wanting to die.</p><p>I’m about to get up and look for a way to end myself when I feel the movements stop. I freeze halfway out of bed. <em>“Weird, why did it stop all the sudden? Though, that might also be normal…”</em></p><p>I don’t get to finish that thought however as the movements return but something feels off.</p><p>Instead of light punches and kicks I feel something different, I can put a finger on how it feels exactly.</p><p>I sit on the edge of my bed, one hand on my stomach, staring at my bloated gut, trying to figure out what it feels like when it suddenly hits me.</p><p>It feels like something is trying to claw its way out of me, what I’m feeling is claws scraping along my innards.</p><p>My eyes grow wide in fear, whatever it is that lives inside me, it’s not human.</p><p>I suddenly feel sick, ready to throw up any second. I rush to the toilet but trip over my own feet before I can even reach the door.</p><p>I hit my head on the floor, stars dance across my vision and a ringing sound fills my ears. I try to get up but wind up falling again because I’m too disoriented.</p><p>The motions of that <em>thing</em> inside me get stronger with every passing second, as if it suddenly decided that it wants out.</p><p><em>“Shouldn’t I be feeling contractions if this thing is supposed to come o- “</em>I don’t get to finish that thought either as a sudden piercing pain shoots through my belly.</p><p>I gasp and grit my teeth. <em>“What the fuck was that.” </em>I try to take a look, but my vision is still too blurry to make out anything.</p><p>A second sting shoots through my abdomen, a bit further left this time. I quietly scream in pain, I try to grab whatever is that is causing this pain.</p><p>My hand closes around something thin and hot, for a short moment it stays still then suddenly it moves and cuts deeply into my hand.</p><p>I scream again and pull back my hand. I hold it close to my face in an attempt to make out what happened to it.</p><p>Just barely I manage to make out a deep one inch (2,5cm) long cut in my palm, it’s bleeding heavily and dripping blood all over me.</p><p>I feel my heart stop for a moment, this isn’t someone trying to stab me. If it were the cut would be along my entire hand, not only on the side that touched my skin.</p><p>Whatever it is, it’s coming from inside me.</p><p>Suddenly I feel my gut getting pierced in two more places and a split second later the piercing sting turns into an agonizing tear.</p><p>I arch my back and try to scream but only a quiet whimper leaves my mouth. Tears roll down the side of my head and I dig my fingernails into the carpet as I feel hot blood flow over my skin.</p><p>I raise my head again to see what is tearing through my skin. All the adrenalin pumping through my veins finally cleared my vision.</p><p>I see a pair of black, curved claws sticking out of my belly, they move up and down just slightly as they tear through me. Instinctively, I try to grab them and keep them in place but as soon as they move, they cut into my hands. All I can do is watch as I get cut open.</p><p>When the claws meet just above my belly button, they suddenly disappear into my insides again and for a short moment nothing happens.</p><p>Then I feel something push against where I was cut open, it hurts so much I can barely stay conscious.</p><p>As it slowly pushes its way outward, I can see the area below my belly button bulge outwards until a head abruptly bursts free. Horrified, I realize that it isn’t a human head, it’s an insect’s head reminiscent of a hornet.</p><p>A second later I black out from the pain.</p><p>Fortunately, when I wake up, I’m back in my bed, it’s four am and I clearly had been thrashing around and crying lots. My blanket lies on the floor in a heap, my cheeks feel hot and my eyelids are covered in a crust of salt.</p><p>I feel my heart still pounding against my chest and my breath runs shallow and fast.</p><p><em>“Fuck… that felt too real…” </em><br/>I try to take a couple deep breaths to calm down just a bit</p><p>
  <em>“I really hope this won’t become a common theme.” </em>
</p><p>For a moment I look back and go through the dream again, even now I can still feel a faint pain in my abdomen and fear starts to overtake me.</p><p>With a quick shake of my head and gentle tap of my temple I clear my thoughts. <em>“Best not to think about it.”</em></p><p>I pluck the blanket off the floor and throw it over me. <em>“Much better.” </em>I pull it up to my nose and start thoughtlessly staring at the ceiling. <em>“It’s almost scary how good I’ve gotten at doing nothing and thinking about nothing. At this point I might even not notice when I die. How fortunate that would be.” </em><br/>Soon my mother snaps me back into reality as she opens the door, bringing me breakfast. I want to ask her if she has any news for me now, but I also don’t want to risk being disappointed again.</p><p>Instead I eat my breakfast in silence, my mother only watches for a little before going back downstairs.</p><p>I spend most of the day wondering if I should start planning a DIY abortion and, in the end, decide to not just yet. If I don’t hear anything positive back in a week, I’ll go find something myself.</p><p>When my mom comes to bring dinner, I ask her if she has any positive news. She simply shakes her head and stays silent.</p><p>I grunt and start eating my dinner. <em>“That’s what I thought.” </em><br/>Eventually the time to sleep comes but instead I find myself tossing and turning, every time my eyes begin to fall shut and my mind drifts off, I jump awake a moment later. I’m too scared of what might await me in my dreams.</p><p>Hours pass, slowly, oh so slowly. At first, I’m frustrated that I can’t sleep, then I begin to worry that something is wrong with me until finally I can only wait for my body to take control and force me to sleep.</p><p>Turns out, I won’t be this lucky, because why would I be. An eternity had passed, or so it felt like at least and I notice that I hear birds chirping outside. <em>“Is it daytime again?” </em>I slowly turn and peek at my alarm clock. <em>“6:24 am…Kill me…”</em></p><p>I throw the pillow onto my head and growl into it. I feel so tired and exhausted, but I can’t get any sleep. No matter what I try I always wake up within minutes of drifting off.</p><p>Since I didn’t have any luck falling asleep in the past eight hours, I figure I might as well give up.</p><p>I sit up in bed and try to resume my mindless trance, though it turns out to be much harder since I can’t control my thoughts as well due to being super tired.</p><p>At some point my mom brings me breakfast yet again, she notices that I was acting rather sluggishly and asks:” Are you not sleeping well?”</p><p>“Sleeping at all would be great.” I mumble in between two bites, my eyes half closed., my eyes half closed.</p><p>“Nightmares keeping you up? If you want, I can get you something to help with that. Though don’t even think that I’ll just let you have the bottle.” She puts extra emphasis on the last sentence.</p><p>I fake a laugh and shake my head. “What worried that I try to off myself again? Trust me, if life hadn’t showed me that trying to kill myself won’t work, I wouldn’t be idly sitting in bed right now.”</p><p>I can see her cringe from the edge of my vision, my words must have hurt pretty badly but I can’t find myself caring at all.</p><p>She stays quite a bit longer than the last few times, it’s pretty obvious that she wants to say something but can’t bring herself to.</p><p>I don’t care enough to ask her to tell me and once I finish my breakfast, I hand the plate back to her and pull the blanket up to my nose while resuming my favourite pastime of staring at the ceiling.</p><p>My mother takes my plate and slowly leaves the room, I can tell she’s suffering as well and for just a moment I don’t feel completely alone with my fate.</p><p>Once I’m alone again, I spend the entire day alternating between sleeping for a few minutes and waking up, only to black out half an hour later once again.</p><p>I don’t manage to pay much mind to anything, my mind is simply too hazy. At some point my mother brings me dinner, then a lot of time passes and suddenly she’s in my room again with breakfast. <em>“Huh, didn’t realize it’s been a whole day…” </em><br/>Noon comes eventually, and I actually sleep for more than ten minutes in one go. I awaken around three pm, not feeling rested still but I certainly take notice. <em>“Is my brain finally calming down?” </em>I wonder silently.</p><p>It doesn’t seem to be quite there yet but for the remainder of the day I sleep just a little longer, usually fifteen-minute increments.</p><p>When my mother serves me dinner, I ask her if she heard anything. I only get a defeated sigh and a shake of her head as an answer. <em>“As I thought.” </em>I look at the blanket where my abdomen would be. <em>“Five more days you little fuck, either abort yourself or I’ll make you leave.” </em><br/>Again, I spend the rest of the day pondering how to DIY an abortion. <em>“Wire coat hanger? Easy to get and all but I don’t know how effective it is. Medication? Sure, works well to off myself which is also an abortion in a sense. Blunt impact to my stomach? I guess my father can do something good for me this once.</em>”</p><p>That night my dreams are filled with me trying to get rid of the parasite, but nothing works.</p><p>I poke and prob around my insides with a wire coat hanger till I feel something pop, I discharge a bunch of blood, tissue and odd liquid but the next morning my belly has only grown more.</p><p>I want to break down and cry but somehow manage to keep my composure and instead try again.</p><p>I grab the closest container of pills and after making sure they actually have a lethal dose I down the entire contents of it. Only to awaken later in my own bed, my stomach more swollen than ever.</p><p>Panic overtakes me, what is this accursed mess? Why won’t it go away, why can’t I die?</p><p>In a last effort to end this madness I grab the biggest kitchen knife I can find, it’s so long it should almost reach my spine by the looks of it. I take half a dozen steps at my abdomen, driving the blade into me until the handle is flush with my skin. I want to keep going but I feel myself losing consciousness and when I wake up, I find myself back in the real world. Panting and my muscles feeling sore. My sheets are damp from all the sweat and I can tell that I’ve been thrashing about a bunch. <em>“Fuck, good thing that that was just a dream.”</em><br/>I take a couple moments to let my breathing settle down and for the remaining fear and panic to fade away.</p><p>Once I can think mostly clear again, I notice how I’m starting to feel sick yet again. <em>“Oh no, not again… Why does it have to torment me on top of everything else.” </em><br/>I glance at the clock, hoping that I slept in late but much to my disappointment it’s barely seven am.</p><p><em>“I can’t wait four more days. I can’t. I’m usually patient but this is too much. Why did I decide to wait anyway? This thing clearly isn’t going away on its own.” </em>I hear my mother come upstairs and snap out of my thoughts.</p><p>She enters the room with downcast eyes, haphazardly holding onto a plate with my breakfast on it. “Nothing new?” I ask her with an indifferent voice. “I thought I had a lead but that turned out to be nothing as well.” She replies with a hopeless voice.</p><p>I nod slowly and place the plate on my lap. “I guess it’s time for me to take things into my own hands then.” I expect myself to start panicking but instead I feel nothing. As if I were talking about getting a vaccine. <em>“If only there were a vaccine for pregnancies.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>My mother sighs and slowly raises her head. “I wish it didn’t have to come to this, but I also can’t keep you from doing things yourself. Just know that I can’t help you wit-.”</p><p>“I didn’t expect you to.” I reply before she can finish speaking, my lips drawn into a perfectly flat line. “I knew from the start that I was in this on my own.” I can see my mother deflate internally.</p><p>“Alright.” Is the only reply she can muster before she trots out of the room.</p><p>I slowly eat my food as I start making concrete plans on how to proceed from here. <em>“No point in waiting any longer, I’ll go get up and look around to see what I can find.” </em></p><p>With my mind set on getting rid of this parasite I begin to wonder what I should do afterwards, it doesn’t change my situation too much. <em>“Best thing to try is get a job, from the newspapers maybe?” </em><br/>As I’m finishing the last bit of my breakfast, I realize that technically there’s nothing keeping me here other than the fact that I wouldn’t have a roof over my head otherwise. <em>“I wonder how much worse off I would be if I just ran off.” </em><br/>I put the plate aside and turn to get out of bed. As I sit on the edge of the mattress I look down at my visibly round belly. <em>“Time for you to fuck off. But how?”</em> I ask myself. <em>“I should have a wire coat hanger, or should I try pills first? I think the wire coat hanger has a higher probability of working, it also does the job faster and I need to be out of my room less.” </em>I nod to myself and smile. <em>“That settles that.” </em></p><p>I push myself off the bed and take a step forward. Before I can even put my foot down again, I feel dizzy and my vision goes blurry as I feel my heart struggling. <em>“That’s what I get for staying in bed for I don’t even remember how long.” </em></p><p>I bend over and rest my palms on my knees, waiting for my body to settle down again.</p><p>When my vision turns clear again, I walk up to my wardrobe and quickly open the doors.</p><p>I over the two jackets and few other items of clothing hung up on coat hangers. <em>“Wood, wood, plastic, wire…” </em>A grin grows on my face. <em>“Perfect.” </em>I snag it off the metal bar and quickly take the blouse off it and chuck it aside. I take a thorough look at the coat hanger, trying to figure out how to use it for my own purposes. <em>“I’d need to cut it…”</em> Then I notice that it’s not actually one continuous wire but instead one end of the wire is tightly coiled around the bit below the hook. <em>“Wonderful, doesn’t look like they deburred it either.” </em>I make a clicking sound with my tongue and start trying to take it apart.</p><p>Turns out unwinding the bit of wire is much harder than expected, I can’t get a good grip on it and my fingernails are much too soft to be useful.</p><p>I quickly move to my desk where I grab a pair of crafting scissors and try to get the tip in between the metal wires.</p><p>After slipping over and over, nearly stabbing myself several times, I notice that it would be much easier to start on the other end of it. <em>“I’m truly not a smart person.” </em>I shake my head and sigh before putting down the scissors.</p><p>I need to deform the wire quite badly, but after some fiddling about I manage to get it unwrapped.</p><p>The wire turns out really bumpy and crooked, but it’ll have to do. <em>“Anything to be rid of this piece of garbage growing inside me.” </em></p><p>I take a deep breath and look down myself. <em>“Time to do this.” </em>I can feel my heart quicken and my harts starting to shake, both from excitement and fear.</p><p><em>“I’m so close, so close…But what if this doesn’t work.” </em>My breath runs flat and fast.</p><p><em>“Don’t worry about it, this will work, and you’ll be fine.” </em>I try to convince myself and tightly grip the wire. <em>“You’ve done worse things to yourself.” </em><br/>After a few moments I gather the courage to stand up and start to strip myself off my underwear.</p><p><em>“Wait…Check if you can lock the door. Wouldn’t want someone to walk in on you. Also, shut the blinds. No one needs to see this mess.”</em> Quickly, I go to the window and grab the belt like thing next to the window that lowers the shutters, I listen to them rattle as they quickly drop down and the room gets engulfed in darkness.<br/>I walk up to my door, press one ear against it to hear if anyone is in the hallway, then slowly open it and peak left and right.</p><p>I look at the top of the doorframes that line hallway. <em>“There it is.” </em>Atop the bathroom door lies the key to all the doors inside this house. I quickly nab it and sneak back into my room, then lock the door and take the key out of the lock so no one can push it out of the lock and grab it from under the door. <em>“There we go.” </em>I think to myself as I flip on the lights. <em>“Now, where were we?” </em></p><p>I slip my fingers under the seam of my underwear but just as I try to slip them off, I freeze. <em>“Hmm?” </em>I try to move my hands, but they refuse to move.</p><p>Suddenly panic overtakes me and memories of that one fateful night comes flooding back.</p><p>My eyes widen and I fall to my knees. <em>“No, not now.” </em>I bury my face in my hands and try to force the memories back to where they came from.</p><p>Eventually I somehow manage to push them back far enough to think semi clear again. <em>“I don’t have any time to waste. The earlier I get this over with the better.”</em></p><p>Again, when I go to strip off my underwear, I feel the memories trying to come back but this time I’m prepared and manage to keep them at bay.</p><p>With my underwear gone I feel extremely exposed and vulnerable even though my blinds are shut, and the door is locked. I take a couple deep breaths and slowly sit down. <em>“Next step, pierce the placenta I assume.” </em>I can feel my heart pounding in my chest and my breathing has turned into more of a heave than anything else.</p><p>I grab the wire with both hands and take a thorough look at it. The thought of having to put it inside me fills me with such dread I stop thinking for a moment. <em>“I have to. I have to do it.” </em><br/>With a few shaky deep breaths, I try to bring some order into the turmoil that my thoughts have devolved into but ultimately fail, too scattered are my thoughts.</p><p>I take another thorough look at the wire, staring at the details in its waves and curves, the imperfections in the surface and the shine of the metal. It feels like if I stared any harder, I might start seeing its crystal structure and maybe even the atoms within.</p><p>I suddenly feel laser focused on what I need to do. I try to lie down my legs and move them apart to make access easier but when I try to spread them, I feel my entire body and mind lock up.</p><p>I blink once and stare at my knees. <em>“What?” </em>I grab my knees and try to force them apart but to no avail.</p><p><em>“Come on, come on. Don’t be like that.”</em> I try again, pulling with enough force to make my arms shake but my legs simply lock up and refuse to move. <em>“Why is my body disobeying me.”</em> I growl and grit my teeth. <em>“Be like that then. It only means that I’ll have to take myself out as well.” </em>I throw the wire aside and put my underwear back on. Then I also throw on a pair of jeans, pick up the key and unlock the door to head to the bathroom.</p><p>Somehow the anger has swept away all my fear and worry, all that remains is the determination to destroy myself once and for all.</p><p>I rip open the cupboard above the sink and look for any useful medications, I spot a bottle with a “prescription only” label on it. <em>“Come here my little friend.” </em>I think to myself as I reach for it. <em>“Where did you come from?” </em>I skim the writing on the bottle, the name doesn’t ring a bell right away but by the looks of it it’s prescription strength pain killer.</p><p>A devious grin creeps across my face. <em>“This is wonderful, where were you when I needed you last time.” </em>I pop open the bottle and much to my surprise find that it’s almost full. <em>“Must be a new one then, wonder who in this household needs them.” </em>I dump a handful onto my hand. <em>“Should I take some other meds as well?” </em>I pause for a moment to think.</p><p>As I’m pondering the effects of mixing pills, I notice some noises from downstairs, almost sounds like my parents are fighting. They’ve never fought before, not that I noticed anyway, but I don’t care. Hell, I wouldn’t care if a moon sized meteor were hurtling towards earth in these moments because I’d be dead by the time it hit, hopefully at least.</p><p><em>“Better not mix and match, this looks like enough pills to take out a horse. Wouldn’t want to somehow neutralize the effects of these.” </em>And with that I chuck the meds into my mouth and swallow. My throat hurts badly but I just grit my teeth harder and drink some water to wash them down. <em>“You don’t get to complain body, if you would have cooperated, I wouldn’t need to do this.” </em>I dump another bunch onto my hand.</p><p>Suddenly I notice the sound of someone running up the stairs. <em>“Huh?” </em>I stop what I was doing for just a moment. <em>“That’s my father… Fuck.”</em><br/>The door to the bathroom flies open and smashes into the wall next to it, my father stands in the doorframe, his head beet red and anger burning in his eyes.</p><p>I stare at him with a deadpan expression, pills and bottle still in my hands. The corner of his mouth twitches. “Heard someone finally got themselves pregnant. I’m surprised you could get some por sod to touch you, much less stick his dick inside you.”</p><p>I feel like my mind freeze and shatter, my mom must have spilled the beans. “Don’t even dare to think you get out of this one the easy way.” He says as he points at the pills.</p><p>I look at my hand, then at him and back at my hand. “Try and stop me.” I say quickly tossing them into my mouth and swallowing them.</p><p>He steps forward and smacks the bottle out of my hand. “You shut your mouth, fucking whore. I can’t believe you’d be this stupid.” He stands right in front of me, staring at me with rage in his eyes, usually I’d be scared shitless and begging for mercy but in this moment, I can’t bring myself to care.</p><p>“How did you do it? Did you get some poor guy drunk and seduced him in his drunk stupor? Used him like a toy?” He snarls at me.</p><p>“I won’t let you trap an honest man with some stupid baby.” He punches me in the stomach with such force I fall backwards against the windowsill and almost throw up.</p><p>“Thanks for helping get rid of this parasite.” I grumble as I try to get up again. “What nonsense are you talking whore?” He growls, though he’s obviously caught off-guard.</p><p>“You’re assuming I wanted to fall this thing growing inside me.” I manage to stand back up, albeit on wobbly feet. “Those nice men you’re talking about, did abhorrent things to me- “</p><p>“SHUT UP.” He screams. “You don’t get to accuse people of raping you. You’re just using it as a cover up for your whoring around.” He gets right in my face again, about to punch me again.</p><p>I notice my mother standing in the doorframe, watching this mess unfold before her. “Mom, you saw me when I came home that day. You know what desolate sta- “My father’s lands another punch on my stomach, making me double over gag. “DON’T YOU DARE TRY AND GET YOUR MOTHER TO LIE TO ME. HAVE YOU NOT A SINGLE OUNCE OF SHAME IN YOU?”</p><p>He slaps me with enough force to make my vision fade to black for a moment.</p><p>“YOU’RE NOT MY DOUGHTER, NEVER WERE. OUT OF MY HOUSE, OUT OF MY LIFE YOU USELESS WHORE. GO GET RAPED TO DEATH BY HOBOS OR MAULED BY RABID DOGS.” He grabs me by the collar of my shirt and shoves me towards the bathroom door.</p><p>I stumble through the door and slam into the opposite wall of the hallway, before I can fully regain my senses, he’s already behind me and shoves me towards the stairs.</p><p>I try to stop him, but his pushes come to quickly for me to do much of anything so instead I wind up stumbling towards the stairs.</p><p>I try to catch myself on the railing but miss and tumble down the steps.</p><p>By now I’ve completely lost my orientation, all I know is that my ribs and arms hurt and that my head might just explode.</p><p>I feel my father grab one of my arms and drag me out the door.</p><p>“AND DON’T YOU DARE SHOW YOUR FACE NEAR MY PROPERTY, EVER.” And with that the front door slams shut.</p><p>I lie on the steps leading up to the door, not sure where up and down are, much less what just happened.</p><p>The fact that the pills start kicking in doesn’t help either and as such I wind up lying there for probably several hours.</p><p>Eventually I have a short moment of clarity, I was just kicked out. I have no more home. The realization doesn’t hurt, yet.</p><p>I get up, my legs just barely carry me and start staggering towards the sidewalk, I probably look like a drunkard.</p><p>With every step I take my head spins a little more and by the time I make it halfway down the driveway I feel like throwing up at any moment.</p><p>I lean over the fence to our neighbours and just a second later my stomach empties itself onto the roots of their conifers.</p><p>I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and keep stumbling towards the road. Somehow, I eventually end up on a nearby park bench, the sun has set a little while ago and my mind is finally clear enough to form some semblance of a consciousness.</p><p><em>“My dad kicked me to the streets…”</em> Is my first clear thought as I sit there in a public park. Homeless, broken, pregnant, scared and lost.</p><p>I look down at my stomach, it still hurts quite badly but so does just about my entire body. <em>“I’m surprised I didn’t break something when I fell down the stairs.”</em></p><p>I sit on that park bench, thoughtlessly staring into the distance until my body forces me to fall asleep. <em>“I hope I don’t wake up from this.” </em>Is my last thought.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <strong> <span class="u">Flame of sadness </span> </strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As usual, I wake up the next morning. Why would I be so lucky anyway?</p><p>The sound of cyclists and pedestrians walking by gets me out of my usual drowsiness rather quick.</p><p>At least my thoughts are sort of clear again, I still feel a bit loopy from the medications and my body still hurts all over but I’m already sure that I’ll survive this as well. <em>“Why did I of all people get the indestructible body?” </em><br/>I get off the bench and wander around the park for a while, trying to think of what to do now.</p><p>The following months are some of the most tumultuous in my life. At first, I try to get a new ID card and the usual paperwork but that turns out to be impossible as the system is too locked down for me to get anything without having my parents vouch for my identity under oath. Which is obviously not going to happen.</p><p>As such I wind up living under bridges and in the lobbies of whatever places I can get access to. My food I mostly steal from the dumpsters of supermarkets, same goes for hygiene products.</p><p>What I can’t steal from dumpsters I either pick off the side of the road or the piles of bulky waste that I find every now and then.</p><p>I even manage to keep myself decently clean most of the time by picking spare change off the floor and the occasional lost wallet. The money I get from that is either used to get me used clothing or pays for the entry fee to the public bath.</p><p>Somehow, I end up becoming almost used to it and in a way, I even start taking pride in what I’ve been able to accomplish all on my own.</p><p>During all this my belly keeps inflating and eventually during some dark and rainy night I end up in a back road, curled up on the floor and moaning to the rhythm of my contractions.</p><p>I had wanted to try another DIY abortion but didn’t find the time or energy to do it until it was too late. Towards the end of my pregnancy I started seeing something of a silver lining to it all. In the end even though my existence was wasted I could give this unfortunate soul a shot at a better life.</p><p>That obviously meant dropping him off at a hospital and never seeing this little shit again, but I never care particularly much either way. Luckily the hospital of the city I was in at the time had this new and innovative thing called a baby hatch where you could drop off unwanted babies anonymously.</p><p>However, that plan was foiled as well as I had a stillbirth. I couldn’t tell if the foetus died during the birth, strangled by the umbilical cord or was killed off much earlier.</p><p>At first it doesn’t affect me much, after all I hadn’t cared much to begin with but after some time, I start to hate myself for fucking up someone else’s chance at life. My selfishness had led to the early snuffing of what could have been a happy and productive life. Instead I get to keep wasting away, doing nothing of value. I attempt to kill myself for the fourth time, however this time I don’t even get far enough to hurt myself. Why should I even try? I’ve tried thrice by now and never succeeded. Unless I throw myself in front of a train, I won’t see any success. That doesn’t keep me from loitering around the local train stations, longingly staring at the train tracks every time I hear a train approaching. But I never find it in me to jump, every time I take a look around, at all the commuters and families. I can’t bring myself to burden them with watching me getting shredded by the train. Even when I find myself standing next to freight train, with no one else nearby, I can’t get it done. The poor train operator shouldn’t have to go through that trauma.</p><p>Thus, I keep aimlessly wandering around different cities, operating on autopilot.</p><p>Before I know it another year and a half come to pass, I had turned eighteen and my nineteenth birthday wasn’t far off, not that I cared much. Those things were mere idle thoughts passing my mind.</p><p>Several times, usually as I’m walking along the outer perimeter of the cities, near nature, I find myself wondering if I should leave the cities behind me and go and build my own life out in the space between. I didn’t need anything other than my hands to build me a shack. No permits, no money, no nothing. It would be insanely hard to pull off but what I was currently living certainly wasn’t much better.</p><p><em>“It’d give me a purpose after all.” </em>I think to myself. Though in the end I never end up going through with it, too daunting is the outlook of having to source everything on my own, without relying on the refuse of others.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Flame of Sadness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As usual, I wake up the next morning. Why would I be so lucky anyway?</p><p>The sound of cyclists and pedestrians walking by gets me out of my usual drowsiness rather quick.</p><p>At least my thoughts are sort of clear again, I still feel a bit loopy from the medications and my body still hurts all over but I’m already sure that I’ll survive this as well. <em>“Why did I of all people get the indestructible body?” </em><br/>I get off the bench and wander around the park for a while, trying to think of what to do now.</p><p>The following months are some of the most tumultuous in my life. At first, I try to get a new ID card and the usual paperwork but that turns out to be impossible as the system is too locked down for me to get anything without having my parents vouch for my identity under oath. Which is obviously not going to happen. </p><p>As such I wind up living under bridges and in the lobbies of whatever places I can get access to. My food I mostly steal from the dumpsters of supermarkets, same goes for hygiene products.</p><p>What I can’t steal from dumpsters I either pick off the side of the road or the piles of bulky waste that I find every now and then.</p><p>I even manage to keep myself decently clean most of the time by picking spare change off the floor and the occasional lost wallet. The money I get from that is either used to get me used clothing or pays for the entry fee to the public bath.</p><p>Somehow, I end up becoming almost used to it and in a way, I even start taking pride in what I’ve been able to accomplish all on my own.</p><p>During all this my belly keeps inflating and eventually during some dark and rainy night I end up in a back road, curled up on the floor and moaning to the rhythm of my contractions.</p><p>I had wanted to try another DIY abortion but didn’t find the time or energy to do it until it was too late. Towards the end of my pregnancy I started seeing something of a silver lining to it all. In the end even though my existence was wasted I could give this unfortunate soul a shot at a better life.</p><p>That obviously meant dropping him off at a hospital and never seeing this little shit again, but I never care particularly much either way. Luckily the hospital of the city I was in at the time had this new and innovative thing called a baby hatch where you could drop off unwanted babies anonymously.</p><p>However, that plan was foiled as well as I had a stillbirth. I couldn’t tell if the foetus died during the birth, strangled by the umbilical cord or was killed off much earlier.</p><p>At first it doesn’t affect me much, after all I hadn’t cared much to begin with but after some time, I start to hate myself for fucking up someone else’s chance at life. My selfishness had led to the early snuffing of what could have been a happy and productive life. Instead I get to keep wasting away, doing nothing of value. I attempt to kill myself for the fourth time, however this time I don’t even get far enough to hurt myself. Why should I even try? I’ve tried thrice by now and never succeeded. Unless I throw myself in front of a train, I won’t see any success. That doesn’t keep me from loitering around the local train stations, longingly staring at the train tracks every time I hear a train approaching. But I never find it in me to jump, every time I take a look around, at all the commuters and families. I can’t bring myself to burden them with watching me getting shredded by the train. Even when I find myself standing next to freight train, with no one else nearby, I can’t get it done. The poor train operator shouldn’t have to go through that trauma.</p><p>Thus, I keep aimlessly wandering around different cities, operating on autopilot.</p><p>Before I know it another year and a half come to pass, I had turned eighteen and my nineteenth birthday wasn’t far off, not that I cared much. Those things were mere idle thoughts passing my mind.</p><p>Several times, usually as I’m walking along the outer perimeter of the cities, near nature, I find myself wondering if I should leave the cities behind me and go and build my own life out in the space between. I didn’t need anything other than my hands to build me a shack. No permits, no money, no nothing. It would be insanely hard to pull off but what I was currently living certainly wasn’t much better.</p><p><em>“It’d give me a purpose after all.” </em>I think to myself. Though in the end I never end up going through with it, too daunting is the outlook of having to source everything on my own, without relying on the refuse of others.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Dawn of Destiny</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It is autumn, probably around the end of October, that I decided to give live as a forest dweller a shot.</p><p>If I were to die out there, no one would need to deal with the trauma of it, I would be all on my own. In fact, I was almost certain that this endeavour wouldn’t last long, a week at best. Without all the modern commodities that I had been using my entire life I surely couldn’t last, or could I? I had somehow managed to survive on my own with no help for over two years after all.</p><p>But at least it gave me something to do.</p><p>With my mind set on leaving the confines of the skyscrapers and congested roads I went to sleep that night.</p><p>My dreams are filled with an anxious anticipation of what’s to come. I dream of wondrous magic forests, filled with mythical beings like unicorns, hippogriff and phoenixes, all these things had filled my daydreams years ago and now they were finally coming back.</p><p>However, as the night progresses my dreams grow darker as I remember how dangerous the forest can be too, suddenly the beautiful creatures disappear. They are replaced by lovecraftian horrors, any happiness immediately drains from the world around me. Everything feels so dark, intimidating and dreadful, as if the forest just keeps me alive to toy with me. The creatures loom over me menacingly, slowly reaching for me with their claws, to rip the soul out of my body and devour it. While these dreadful creatures scare me to no end, I don’t fear them. Adrenalin rushes through my veins, I can feel my body prepare for a fight or flight response, yet my mind refuses to react at all. No matter what these monsters do to me, it can’t be worse than what I’ve lived through, or can it? Before the nightmares get too close to me the dream fades to blackness as my mind slowly rouses from its slumber.</p><p>I awoke bright and early upon the next morning, the sun had barely peaked over the horizon yet and the roads were mostly empty before the usual rush hour, I set out towards the outskirts of the city.</p><p>It didn’t take me long to leave the taller buildings behind me, wandering through the small curvy streets of the suburbs I look back once more to see the skyline fading in the smog behind me all of this won’t ever bother me again, I didn’t matter here, and I won’t matter out there.</p><p>Eventually the area around me becomes less and less populated and I find myself upon a hill in one of the last inhabited parts of the city before the forests began, lifting my sight from the concrete beneath me I gaze over the vast lands that lie beneath this hill.</p><p>The autumn colours paint the trees all shades of orange, red and yellow with the occasional speckle of green thrown in there, small and large roads connecting the city to others cut through the forest but outside of those the cover of leaves is nearly undisturbed.</p><p>I stand there staring off into the distance for almost an hour just admiring the scenery that nature crafted so artistically, then I slowly make my first step forward out of the city into the wildlands.</p><p>This was it, no more begging for money for food, no more dealing with shitty people, no more stealing, no more bullshit, just me and nature.</p><p>At first, I stick to the side of large main road to make sure that I actually increase the distance between me and humanity. I just wander about looking left right up and down inspecting the trees, grass, bushes, anything that caught my sight really.</p><p>After a couple of hours of walking I stop and slowly turn around for the first time since leaving the city and to my surprise the horizon had already swallowed even the tallest skyscrapers, for all I knew I was completely on my own now with no humans around for several kilometres.</p><p>I breathe in deeply and turn around again to head onwards, to my surprise I didn’t feel an inkling of regret, fear or anxiety about what may happen to me, all I wanted to do was explore and see what this land had to offer.</p><p>My steps speed up until I end up sprinting, nearly flying over the dead leaves and branches beneath me, I was finally free to do whatever I pleased, and no one was there to silently judge me.</p><p>I just keep running on and on and on until the sun touches the horizon once again, by now I had completely lost any sense of direction so I figured I might as well leave the last trace of humanity behind and turn into the forest away from the road that I had been following all day.</p><p>With it being autumn, the sun set rather quickly and soon I found myself in near complete darkness only the waxing crescent in the sky shining its gentle light through the leaves above.</p><p>Surrounded by trees and bushes I find myself the comfiest looking one and sit down under it, the leaves beneath me crunching as my butt hits the ground, I have to giggle as it reminds me of how humans always destroy things no matter where they go.</p><p>Looking up I see that it’s an old rather majestic oak tree towering above almost all trees around, around me there are all sorts of assorted shrubberies, smaller trees and even some flowers blooming in between, the ground is completely covered in a blanket of orangey brown leaves with only a few mushrooms poking their heads through.</p><p>Then my stomach rumbles rather loudly making its displeasure known, I look around for something edible and luckily, I seem to have stopped right next to some champignons and a pear tree.</p><p>After plucking a couple of pears and tearing a handful of mushrooms out of the soil I plant myself under a nearby tree and chow down on my dinner, after finishing I feel rather nice and full.</p><p>I sit there admiring my surroundings, while I slowly slide downwards until I end up lying flat on the ground looking up at the treetops, my blinks grow longer and longer until my eyes stay shut entirely and I drift off to sleep.</p><p>I expected nightmares of being hunted or stalked by animals or monsters through the darkness of the forest at night, but no such thing happens, my dreams centre around exploring the infinite lands around me, finding mysterious caves, beautiful lakes and rivers and gorgeous mountain ranges. I walk high and low, wading through knee deep murky waters, thigh high lush grass, blizzards blowing around mountains and through the endless darkness beneath the earth, an invisible light lighting my way. I can barely take in the beauty of one scenery before my dreams transition to the next one and much too soon the dream phase of sleep ends.</p><p>The night flies by like a leaf in the breeze and oh so soon the sun once again greets me with its warm rays caressing my skin, I slowly sit up and stretch, that’s when I notice something stuck in my hair, I reach around to grab it.</p><p>A leaf crinkles as my hand closes around it, I pull it out and drop onto the floor, then I shake my head in an attempt to get the other leaves out as well but they have all anchored themselves too strongly, so I spend the next minutes plucking oak leaves out of my hair.</p><p>Afterwards I slowly sit up, but I end up almost falling over as my legs cramp immediately, yesterday must have been a bit too much walking.</p><p>So, I stand there hunched over holding my legs trying not to face plant, eventually my legs calm down and I am allowed to make small slow steps again.</p><p>I stagger ahead looking for a stream or river to drink some water, while looking around I luckily find an apple tree that is small enough for me to be able to reach up and grab one or two apples before my muscles refuse to work.</p><p>Being forced to sit down and do nothing for a while I just slowly munch on my apples and let my thoughts wander about. For now, I had no concrete goals of where I wanted to go, I just wanted to go somewhere. Thus, it was decided I would just keep wandering about for a week or two to scout out the surroundings and then I would decide if I wanted to go somewhere specifically.</p><p>2 Hours pass before my legs feel better, I stand up carefully as to not overly strain my poor muscles, then I head onwards until my ears hear the sound of water flowing and splashing, stopping for a moment to locate the source I turn and make my way over to the river flowing through the undergrowth.</p><p>Once I reached it, I take off my shoes and socks and step into the water, the stream is barely knee deep in the centre, so I just stand there letting the surprisingly clear water flow around my calves</p><p>I reach down with my hands forming a cup to pick up some of the liquid goodness, I slowly raise my hands to my mouth and take a small sip of it, the water tastes like the best thing to ever touch my lips and I greedily gulp down all the water in my hands, a refreshing coldness slowly spreads through my stomach and intestine as I reach down for another hand full of water.</p><p>It takes me a good 15 minutes to satiate my thirst like this, afterwards I close my eyes and resume just standing in the water and listening to the sound of it flowing around me.</p><p>Too soon I start feeling cold and have to leave the water, finding myself a sunny spot off to the side of the creek I sit down cross legged with my hands folded in my lap and my eyes focused on nothing in particular.</p><p>Time flies when you least expect it and soon enough, I can feel the air getting colder as the sun approaches the horizon yet again.</p><p>With my feet dry again I put on my socks and slip into my shoes, I hop across the brook and make my way onwards, wherever it may take me.</p><p>I don’t get to go too far before it gets too dark once again and I need to stop for the day. That day I get to eat some red currants and a good number of mushrooms. Once I am full, I find myself a comfortable spot on the ground and lie down.</p><p>Exhaustion catches up to me very quickly and before I know it my mind drifts off to the land of dreams.</p><p>The stars pass by watching over me as I sleep and eventually the sun shows it’s shining face again kissing me awake with its warm rays of light, this time I don’t get up immediately and just soak in the sunlight for an hour or so.</p><p>Once I feel ready, I swiftly jump onto my feet, to my surprise I don’t get punished by my legs for those sudden movements, another couple of hours of me walking deeper and deeper into the forest ensue.</p><p>By now I am starting to properly pay attention to my surroundings in an attempt to map out the area for the future, while doing that I also realize that there is a distinct lack of animals and animal tracks around.</p><p>I had not seen anything larger than a squirrel and even the amount of birds I hear chirping is too low for this time of the year, obviously some birds had travelled to the south as winter was approaching but overall, the forest is just eerily quiet.</p><p>Looking at the floor for any hints of deer, wolves, badgers, boars and the like I see nothing, no tracks, no poop, no bones just leaves and the occasional mushroom or two.</p><p>Pondering about the reasons why I end up almost running into a tree multiple times, I shake my head to clear my head and start paying attention to the trees around me again, that’s when I notice a couple of trees that have been badly damaged from top to bottom but only on one side.</p><p>One tree hat lots of its bark stripped away, branches torn off and scratches in the main stem on the left side the other on the right, almost as if something huge tried to force its way between them.</p><p>Looking in between the trees in the hopes to spot another fallen tree I see nothing. I dig through the leaves on the floor and find just dirt and worms beneath.</p><p>Looking the trees up and down I can’t shake the feeling that there is something very wrong in this forest, because what possibly could have caused this much damage to two trees in such a symmetrical way if not a falling tree?</p><p>After a couple minutes I decide to leave as the area just creeps me out for some reason, as I keep walking, I can’t keep myself from seeing a handful more of trees that are damaged in the same way, it’s almost always one sometimes two never more and always spaced out a couple hundred meters at least often more.</p><p>As the night approaches I hadn’t seen another damaged tree for a while and had almost forgotten about them, as per usual I find myself a comfy spot on the soil and lie down.</p><p>That day I don’t drift off to sleep as quickly as I did in the days past and I keep turning as my mind tries to find an explanation for the oddities in this forest.</p><p>Eventually tiredness overwhelms me, and I drift off to sleep long after the sun has set, and the nearly full moon shines bright in the sky. In my sleep nightmare filled sleep I keep tossing and turning waking myself with the noise of leaves rustling multiple times. The dreams are all vivid visions of what my subconscious thinks is haunting this forest, scary monsters unlike any I have dreamt off before. I couldn’t describe them if I tried to, they all appeared formless and faceless, reaching for me with their claws and hands, trying to drag me into a dark abyss.</p><p>By the time the sun peeks over the horizon I have been awake for a while already. I get onto my feet quickly as I can’t wait to leave this part of the forest behind me, I walk a lot faster than I did yesterday, that is until I stumble upon something that clearly doesn’t belong into this forest or hell even on this planet.</p><p>I was just looking up into the treetops to see how late it was getting when suddenly I step into a hole of sorts nearly falling over, just barely catching my balance.</p><p>Looking around it seems I just stepped into a slight recession in the ground but upon closer inspection my heart drops, this is no ordinary hole in the ground the shape was way too familiar for that.</p><p>It looked like a paw print of a dog or wolf but big, way too big. I kneel down in disbelief looking at it and estimating its dimensions I figure it must be at least a foot or a foot and a half across and two to two and a half feet long as well as several inches deep. Whatever left this “paw print” must be absolutely ginormous.</p><p>My heart is racing now and my eyes dart around to spot another one just a couple feet off to the side and then another pair about 6 or 9 feet away.</p><p>At this point I just get up and leg it away from the “paw prints” as quickly as I could, I don’t stop until my legs are starting to burn again, and I only give myself a short break before continuing to walk quickly.</p><p>In my panic I don’t even notice that it got dark, possibly because the full moon was illuminating the night rather well, that is until I stumble over a root hiding in the leaves, my face hits the dirt and I see stars for a moment. After I recovered from the fall I sit up and look around me for the first time in a couple of hours. All I see is trees and luckily nothing out of the ordinary, I take a deep breath and calm myself down slowly, after all now everything looking alright right?</p><p>I find a nearby blackberry blush and pluck some off the top to fill my stomach for the night, while eating just blackberries for dinner is really inefficient in terms of getting full quick, they did taste quite nice.</p><p>With my stomach finally full I lie down under a tree again fall asleep before my head hit the ground.</p><p>While my mind was too tired to think, my dreams are all the more vivid, the monsters in my nightmares have grown even more <em>real</em>. I try to run from them, but they always stay close behind me. Their breath brushes against my neck, hot and humid, while their claws tear the clothes off my back. But why were these night terrors affecting me so much more now? The night before I left, I had similar dreams, but I did not feel fear, at least not much. Why was I afraid of them now? It’s not like much had changed in my life, I was still a hopelessly homeless person barely scraping by on stolen things and what nature has to offer.</p><p>The monsters keep torturing me in my dreams throughout the night, neither letting me wake, nor letting me rest.</p><p>Miraculously, I manage to sleep through the night this time and even the sun can’t wake me up until it has nearly reached its peak.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Day of Salvation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After I sleepily got up and had a through stretch, I shake off the last of the nightmares and slowly make my way onwards in the hopes to find water again, while the feeling of dread and panic wasn’t nearly as strong as it was yesterday, I still spend most of the day with a slight sting in my stomach.</p><p>Around noon I happen upon a smaller lake maybe a couple dozen feet across, I quickly strip off my clothes and hop into the chilly water. At first, it’s almost too cold but after a while I get used to it and just drift about on the surface until the sky turns a lovely shade of pink. I swim to the shore and sit on a bigger rock off to the side of the lake until the late evening sun has mostly dried me.</p><p>I slip back into my clothes and scour the surrounding area for some food, as luck would have it this forest had a lot of edible mushrooms, that day it happened to be Blewit as well as some wild carrots that I wash in the lake after pulling them from the soil. By the time I finish eating the sun had already set, I make myself comfortable and just lie around staring at the sky for a while before slowly dozing off.</p><p>Again, the nightmares return, this night though they aren’t nearly as bad, maybe I was getting used to them? The stars glisten above me like every other night, the forest lies peaceful and quiet like every other night.</p><p>I however, was not supposed to stay asleep throughout the night, as a couple of hours later I was awoken by something touching me. Hot breath getting blown against my skin, my eyes snap open instantly and I look for the source.</p><p>I was expecting to see wolves or maybe even a bear but what I see is actually worse.</p><p>Less than three feet from my face my eyes meet with a pair of huge azure blue eyes, my heart quickens and my eyes widen as I look over the rest of the creature to make out what it is.</p><p>Thanks to the rather bright moonlight that was an easy task, before me stands 25 feet tall, nearly 80 feet long, freaking dragon. It’s head alone is already larger than me in all aspects, even the pair of horns at the back of it look intimidating enough.</p><p>I gasp and try to crawl away from it, but I forgot that there was a tree just behind me so all I do is hit my head, the dragon seems to have frozen in its tracks when I woke up, however its eyes are still fixated on me.</p><p>Then I notice its huge paws, they are each equipped with 4 long and scary looking curved, sharp white claws. Each paw is attached to one 20 something feet long leg that looks muscular enough to break trees like they are made of plywood, its hind legs even more so.</p><p>Looking up again I lock eyes with the beast yet again, now I also realize just how big its head is. It’s longer than I am tall and some three or four feet high at its highest point, the head is connected to the torso by a 12-15 feet long neck. Attached to its back is a pair of wings that I can’t even fathom to imagine the dimensions of while they are neatly folded and tucked away to its sides.</p><p>The dragons’ tail is equally gigantic, coming in at some 30 feet in length and while it doesn’t have any tail spikes it could probably still be used as a whip to snap prey in half or at least be used to hold and transport them.</p><p>While I was staring at the dragon in disbelief it had slowly snuck closer to me, the tip of its snout is now mere inches away from me, it starts sniffing and gently nudging me. I don’t do anything about it as I am completely paralyzed by fear. After thoroughly sniffing me it proceeds to lick my face from chin to hairline, its tongue feels like a warm, slimy sponge coated in sandpaper, coarse enough to tear the skin off your flesh.</p><p>Suddenly I lash out at it, it was an instinctive reaction, my fist connects with the tip of its snout, but it doesn’t have the desired effect, instead of making it flinch the dragon just gets mad.</p><p>The growl that followed was something that is still etched into my mind to this day, it made 100 angry roided up grizzly bears doing their most threatening growl sound like a kitten meowing, and the sound waves were strong enough to make the leaves on the trees shake, it almost sounded like the forest was shaking in fear too. Add to that, that it also snarled at me, revealing just enough of its teeth that I could tell how big, sharp and plentiful they were, I am surprised I didn’t piss myself right then and there.</p><p>Then the dragon lets its head snap forward with its jaws wide open, it bites down on the tree behind me just above my head. The sound of splintering wood fills the forest, then follows a cacophony of cracking and a dull thump as the upper part of the tree crashes into the ground.</p><p>After the dragon spat out the wood that got stuck in its mouth it redirects its attention to me again, its eyes still burning with anger, the display of sheer power and anger was enough to make me snap, I started bawling my eyes out as I was certain this was it, this was the end of the line for me, I was going to get shredded by this monster any moment now.</p><p>I keep crying for a while before my tears run dry and my sobs turn into whimpers, I was still for some reason alive. Looking up at the dragon again I see that the anger in its eyes was gone.</p><p>The dragon resumed sniffing and nudging me like nothing happened all the sudden, while I was still paralyzed with fear, I also had this feeling of confusion rise in me, then she goes for another taste of me. The sensation of its tongue touching my skin again is enough to snap me out of my paralysis and while it is busy analysing the flavour I jump up and run off into the forest.</p><p>I don’t get too far though as the dragon immediately pounces after me and smacks me to the ground with her left front paw, I get thrown to the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of me and before I can do anything, it pins me to the ground with one paw nearly crushing me in the process.</p><p>My head just barely sticks out from under its paw between two claws, my arms are completely buried, and my legs as almost completely immobilized as well. I try to struggle and squirm but with what feels like the weight of a small car parked on my body I can barely move at all.</p><p>Now that I was thoroughly immobilized was taking its time eyeing me and just inspecting my body as if it had never seen anything like me, while having a closer look at my legs the dragon moves its paw up a little bit, enough for me to be able to move my legs again so I, in one last desperate attempt kick at its head.</p><p>My foot connects with the dragon’s scales and nothing happens, I can’t see the dragons face at this time, but I didn’t need to as it quickly lifts its paw and swiftly smacks me away to the right.</p><p>I tumble through the air and then crash into a tree and then fall to the ground with dirt and leaves raining down on me. A tremendous pain explodes in my chest and my right arm looks completely mangled and can’t move at all.</p><p>My vision starts to go black and my head is filled with this dull pulsing pain that doesn’t let me focus my thoughts at all, the ground shakes as the dragon walks over to me.</p><p>That is when I black out from the pain, I must have been out cold for several hours because by the time I open my eyes again the sun has risen again, I look over at my arm and for some magical reason it’s whole again and I can move it with fairly little pain also the pain in my chest was gone as well.</p><p>Then I look up again and see that the dragon is still there looking at me, I try to get up and run again but as soon as I move my torso the pain in my chest is back and I almost black out again. As I am writhing in pain the dragon carefully pushes one paw under me and lifts me up to its face.</p><p>The dragon slowly opens its jaws a little bit and lets me roll of its paw into its mouth, then it gently closes its mouth again so that its teeth fix me in place without piercing my skin. My head and part of my shoulders as well as my legs down from my knees still stick out of the sides of its mouth.</p><p>I just let it all happen at this point there was no reason to fight anymore, I was clearly unable to do anything against the dragon, so I just prayed for a quick death. Much to my surprise once I was secured in the dragons’ mouth it started to just walk away from where it had picked me up. Not wanting to risk getting skewered by the dragons’ teeth I lie completely still and just watch as it carries me through the forest. Looking behind us, I notice that the paw prints the dragon leaves behind look rather familiar, then it hits me, the tracks I saw the other day were the dragons and it must have been the one destroying the trees too. While I lie in the dragon’s mouth and think about what is going to happen to me now it carries me all the way to a small clearing where it stops. Suddenly it jumps over 50 feet up into the air and unfolds its wings, the dragon slowly flaps its wings staying nearly completely still in the air. I feel it staring at me and as we lock eyes with one another I notice that there is an amount of concern in its sight, whether it's for my wellbeing or something else I don't know. After staring at each other for a minute the dragon looks on ahead and starts flying into the general direction of the mountains, I make the mistake of looking down, not realizing just how high up it had already risen. The trees beneath us had turned into nothing more than small matchsticks with an orange head, freaked out by the immense height I squirm, my sudden movement makes the dragon bite down slightly which is enough to make several of its teeth puncture my skin and sink right into my flesh. Pain floods my body from my thighs and shoulders, rapidly spreading outwards and a scream of agony escapes my lips. The dragon opens its mouth wide in an attempt to prevent any further damage but that just makes me fall out and towards the ground. I almost instantly lose control over my fall and start spinning out of control, one moment I'm looking at the trees beneath then at the sky and then at the ground again. My brain is utterly overwhelmed with it all and locks up, all I know is that suddenly instead of looking at the ground I'm looking at the dragon’s head and in the next moment I find myself falling into its wide-open maw.</p><p>The dragon uses its tongue to absorb most of the momentum I had built up, its saliva burns red hot where it makes contact with the half a dozen holes in my body. The pain grows so strong, I lose what little was left of my senses and it completely paralyses me, which in that moment saves my life. It allows the dragon to manoeuvre me into its mouth and carefully shut it around me.</p><p>Once I regain my senses I look around to see nothing but darkness, I slowly let my hands glide over my surroundings to realize that I am nearly fully in the dragons mouth only my shin and feet feel like they are still outside judging by the wind chill and the fact that my backside and hands are now covered in slimy goo.</p><p>I close my eyes and take a deep breath, if it keeps going at this rate, I'll end up swallowed much sooner then I want to. After this last near-death experience, I decide that whatever I do it just seems to make things worse, so I'd rather just hold still and maybe... maybe what? Die later? I don't know but whatever it is it probably is better than what is going to happen to me if things keep going at this rate.</p><p>To my surprise the wounds in my back and legs have stopped hurting almost entirely, why I have no clue but I much prefer it this way, after a while of lying in the dragons mouth I start drifting off to sleep, I attempt to fight it but all too soon I lose the battle and fall asleep.</p><p>As I drift off into darkness, I hope that maybe, just maybe my dreams will give me solace from the chaos of this world.</p><p>Sadly, I have no such luck, all the stress doesn’t let my brain come to rest at all and thus my sleep feels like a long blink.</p><p>Time passes quickly when you sleep and after what felt like 5 minutes, I find myself sliding out of the dragon’s mouth, now thoroughly drenched in saliva, onto what feels like stones and rocks.</p><p>I slowly turn my head and open my eyes to see that the dragon took me to what must be its home cave or similar the dragon lies down in front of me and just stares at me with curiosity in its eyes, maybe it just picked me up because it had never seen a human?<br/>While I sit there staring at the dragon I suddenly feel hot breath brushing against my neck and upper back, once again I feel my heart drop. Slowly turning, praying that it was just the wind playing tricks on me, I look upon another dragon. This one’s scales are black like obsidian, yet they appear to reflect some light, it has sulphur yellow eyes instead of azure blue and seems to be quite a lot more muscular than the blue one. Its head too is adorned with a pair of huge horns at the back of it, significantly larger than the other dragons’ ones. Just like the rest of its body. Guesstimating the black dragons’ size, I figure it must be encroaching on 100 feet in length still excluding its tail. Its shoulders must be at least 30 feet high. The tail is no shorter than 35 feet, the dragons head has to be larger than an average cow on its own already with the neck looking to be 25 feet long.</p><p>My jaw drops in awe at the size of the dragon standing in front of me, I nearly forget to breathe while we stare each other down.</p><p>Suddenly I fell myself getting grabbed by the neck of my shirt and lifted off the floor, the blue dragon had just dug its teeth into the back of my shirt and was now lifting me up to eye level with the black dragon.</p><p>The black dragon then proceeds to sniff and nudge me just like the blue one did earlier that day,</p><p>it ultimately ends up near my private parts which, thanks to past events makes me lash out instinctively and just that happens before I know what I am doing my foot connects with the side of the black dragon’s head.</p><p>What happens next is a blur for me, I hear and see the black dragon growling and snarling, while at the same time I get flung backwards and into the open mouth of the blue dragon.</p><p>Its jaws slam shut around me just barely missing my arms and legs at the same time I hear the blue dragon growling back at the black dragon.</p><p>The ear deafening guttural growl coming from deep within it makes my entire body resonate with it, my teeth chatter, my vision turns blurry from the sheer volume of it and even my skeleton quakes as the sound passes through my body. Holding my ears shut barely does anything as the low frequency easily passes through my hands.</p><p>They both keep snarling and growling at one another for what feels like an eternity, finally I feel the blue dragon walk somewhere and lie down, then it spits me out yet again and instantly wraps its tail around me a handful of times, pinning my arms to my side and preventing me from moving my legs at all. My ears still ring and my head aches from the sheer volume of their growls, thus I just let it do with me as it pleases.</p><p>The blue dragon moves me close to its side and then rests its head right next to me and lastly places its wing over us, all this happens so quickly I don't get a chance to see much of the surroundings. One thing I can see is that the hard rocks had been replaced by softer dry grass, leaves and assorted small branches and twigs, could it be that this is some sort of nest?</p><p>The dragon closes its eyes and seems to drift off to sleep as its breath grows deeper and more regular, me being rendered incapable of moving leaves me with no other choice then to go to sleep as well.</p><p>It takes me a long time to finally fall asleep as my mind is racing trying to make sense of what had happened today and trying to predict what is going to happen tomorrow, ultimately though the warmth radiating from the dragon’s body and the calming sounds of its breath lull me to sleep.</p><p>The stress of today makes me fall into a comatose dreamless sleep, only once a couple hours passed does my brain find the energy to dream. I fly high up in the sky, invisible winds carrying me further and further up. Below me there is nothing but endless blue, above me it looks much the same, only a huge orange ball disrupts the scenery. I’m so far up I can’t even spot the ground beneath me anymore. It has completely vanished.</p><p>As I keep ascending the ball of gas that is our sun takes up more and more of the sky above me, I don’t know why I keep approaching it but there is something drawing me too it, like a moth is attracted to a lone light in the dark.</p><p>Me flying so high up must have angered the sun as it suddenly throws spears of pure sunlight at me, they pierce my body leaving smouldering gaping holes. It hurts so bad. I want to flee but I can’t. My wings keep carrying me higher and higher up towards the burning sphere.</p><p>Its spears hit me with increasing frequency, the pain grows with each one. Some hit my wings, they don’t hurt as much but each one slows my ascend. Soon the number of holes in my wings is so great they can’t carry me anymore and I begin to plummet down, away from the sun. Desperately, I reach for it but all it does is burn my hand.</p><p>Quickly, it shrinks, as I keep accelerating towards the ground beneath. At this rate I’m about to shatter into a thousand pieces. I manage to turn to see where I’m headed, where there was nothing but blue before I now see a mountain range stretching almost as far as I can see, a green ring of trees framing the horizon. My fall takes minutes or hours or days, I couldn’t tell, time felt too warped in this world.</p><p>Suddenly the ground opens up beneath me, huge cracks run between the mountains as they begin to drift apart faster and faster. The mountains on the edge of the crack turn sideways forming a line of pointy white tops. The break in the landscape is filled with an endless darkness, swallowing all light that falls into it. The outlook reminds me of something, I can’t put a finger on it though.</p><p>Looking left and right the fissure stretches over what must be hundreds of miles, curving slightly north, forming something that looks like a sickle sans handle.</p><p>Only then do I realize what I’m looking at, the planet had quite literally opened its jaws beneath me. The ground was going to swallow me.</p><p>Realizing that makes me fall so much faster all the sudden, while I felt like I was still dozens of miles up in the sky it takes me mere seconds to pass the first mountain tops and in the blink of an eye I fly past the sideways mountains, or much rather teeth and into the jaws of oblivion.</p><p>I expected to hit something, anything but nothing happens, I keep falling endlessly. The light from the crack above me fades quickly, soon only a small shimmer remains that rapidly fades into nothingness too.</p><p>Even with only nothingness surrounding me I still feel like I’m falling. Anxiously I await whatever comes next, the impact or whatever else this freaky dream world has in store for me.</p><p>All this time I have felt nothing but calm and at rest, I expected myself to panic any moment, for the fear to finally settle in but no, there is nothing like that to be found within me, as if I am unable to feel those emotions. Suddenly my fall stops, I float in the darkness like a puppet hung by some strings and when I blink the darkness disappears, in its place I find a forest.</p><p>Looking around I appear to hang a good dozen feet off the ground, still attached to invisible strings. Slowly, I hover through the trees and bushes making not a single sound as I move. I don’t know why I’m here. I just know that I’m looking for something, hunting it even. A new feeling joined the serene calm in my mind, a lust for food, it’s beyond hunger, beyond anything I have ever felt, so overpowering it might just take control of me entirely. Then a scent hits my nose, something pungent, something familiar. The need to pursue the source of it sweeps everything else aside and I quickly float towards it. However, I don’t get to see the source as everything begins to shake all the sudden, the world turns blurry and melts away around me, my consciousness fades into blackness and then I begin to wake up.</p><p>The blue dragon got bored of watching me sleep and gently shakes me awake by wiggling its tail.<br/>Sleepily I open my eyes and attempt to stretch only to find that my arms are still very much pinned to my side, I look up at the dragon just now remembering where I actually am.</p><p>The moment the realization sets in panic fills me yet again, for just a short second I had forgotten what actually happened yesterday. I try to squirm and break free of its grasp, but my struggles are just as fruitless as they were yesterday, except now the dragon seems to be amused by it. I can feel it staring at me, intently watching me fight its tail as it effortlessly keeps me confined.</p><p>Somehow, I manage to work one arm free enough so that I can grab the tip of its tail and try to pry it off me and while it does give way it is far from enough to be useful to me. Then suddenly, the dragon lifts me up about a foot (0,3m), then rapidly unwinds its tail starting from my feet and drops me onto the ground. My impact is dampened a lot by an oversized nest made from assorted twigs branches, dander and animal hides. Too confused to move, I lay there, staring at the ceiling, for a solid minute, not knowing what to do with my newfound freedom. I feel it stub me with its tail like I would poke a dead animal with a stick, I don’t react fearing that if I do something that it doesn’t like it’ll restrain me again. When it pokes me again, harder this time, I slowly lift my head far enough to look around. To my right I see nothing but blue scales, beyond my feet her head hovers a couple feet (</p><p>~2m) off the ground, between the ground and its head I can see a tiny bit of the sky outside, we must be somewhere quite far up. To my left I find not much of interest either, just rocks and the cave wall.</p><p>I drop my head again, what am I supposed to do? The dragon is way too close to risk running, I’ll just get caught instantly, but maybe if it got distracted, I could make it far enough in to the cave so it couldn’t follow me anymore? Also, where did the other dragon go? Had it left or was it hiding?</p><p>My thoughts are interrupted by a rustling, I quickly poke my head up to see what’s happening, only to see that it was the dragon getting comfortable, resting its head on the edge of the nest.</p><p>Now that it had lowered its head and neck, I could see much more of the outside, not that it helps me much as I all that is visible are some clouds but at least it lets me guesstimate just how far up we are. The clouds look similar enough to Stratus clouds and they appear rather close so we should be about three thousand feet (1000m) up. This makes an escape out the front basically impossible unless I managed to sneak out at night and got a big head start on them, but I had a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn’t get to just sleep on the ground. That I would be neatly wrapped up in either of their tails.</p><p>Slipping out of their grasp and running wasn’t an option either, last night I couldn’t move at all, not even enough to wiggle my way out. Running out of options for an escape I wonder if I could overpower them, or at least stun them for long enough to make a run for it. I splutter at how dumb that idea is, did I already forget what happened yesterday? It didn’t even flinch and with the other dragon being around and with how much bulkier it looked this was an even worse idea now.</p><p>I continue pondering my routes for an escape, well really, I end up weighing my chances of success if I either ran out the front or back as nothing else seems to give me any chances of fleeing. Not that either of those options have a particularly rosy outlook either.</p><p>Eventually I zone out, completely forgetting about my surroundings for a while, my thoughts wandering out of the cave and back down into the forest and how much better it was down there, how I wasn’t confined to approximately seven square feet (2m²). Maybe running out into the forest wasn’t such a good idea as it seemed at the time but then again was this situation that much worse than life in the city? At least I got to see dragons out here, which I didn’t even know existed to begin with.</p><p>Suddenly I notice just how at ease I feel, all the panic and franticness were gone from my mind, replaced by…nothing really, I feel nothing, neither fear nor safeness.</p><p>Must be my way of coping with this high stress situation, it reminds of that one documentary I saw where a gazelle was getting eaten by a hyena and it just stared off into the distance as if nothing was wrong in the world.</p><p>The similarities between me and the gazelle were quite striking, well sans the getting eaten part, death was sitting just a foot (0,3m) away, yet we don’t panic. Probably because we know there is no escape and we just want it to be over and done with.</p><p>Though was I really sure these two dragons wanted me dead? Surely if I was just food I’d be long gone right? Them just toying with me wasn’t an option either anymore, too much time had passed or were they just that enduring? That sadistic?</p><p>Then again if they were playing with me then I must be the most boring plaything in the world, just lying still for I don’t know how long.</p><p>Or could it be they had other plans for me? What could they possibly want from a puny human like me? There’s nothing to gain from me other than a small snack, I couldn’t possibly be any help for them, right? I spend a long time trying to figure out if there could be some reason for them keeping me, maybe they will try and use me as bait? Wait for others to find me somewhere and then just kill us all? Maybe even make me lure others into the forest?</p><p>Then it hits me, could they be keeping me as a pet? We humans do it with all kinds of species all the time. The dragon’s behaviour certainly implies some level of intelligence and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were more intelligent than anything on this planet.</p><p>The possibility that there may be a purpose to them keeping me around, even if it’s just as a pet for entertainment, puts me at ease. Maybe, just maybe this isn’t as bad as it all seems?</p><p>With that question answered my thoughts lose themselves, only sometimes returning to the real world wondering if I should get up and do something, only to realize that there is nothing to be done.</p><p>After many hours I’m snapped out of my trance by the sound of something landing hard in the caves entrance and the ground vibrating a little. Instinctively I sit up straight to look around.</p><p>Immediately I flinch as the wounds in my back send a sharp stinging pain throughout my body, I clench my teeth and try not to make a noise. I had all but forgotten about them and when looking down I can clearly see the holes in my shirt and the blood that soaked into it but when I try to feel them, I only feel coin sized scabs. Didn’t its teeth nearly kill me, come to think of it, how did I even survive and not bleed to death? Surely half a dozen two inch (5cm) deep holes in your back and abdomen should be a sure-fire way to bleed to death. Also, the wounds certainly felt bigger than that, and what happened to my presumably broken bones from getting smacked into a tree?</p><p>The sound of a rock getting crushed snaps me out of my thoughts, and I look left and right.</p><p>For a moment I feel silly, I’m too small to look over the blue dragon. Then I feel something approach and it lifts it head up, revealing the black dragon from yesterday approaching.</p><p>I feel my heart sink, the trauma of what happened yesterday still sits deep. I force myself to just sit still and not move, hoping that I’ll be ignored. It appears to work, he only glances at me shortly before trotting out of my view, disappearing behind the blue dragon and then I hear crunch as it presumably lies down. A quiet sigh leaves my lips and I can feel my muscles relax.</p><p>The blue dragon turns its head to its other side, giving me my first proper view of the cave entrance.</p><p>The nest appears to be positioned some hundred feet (~33m) into the cave, with the entrance some forty-five feet (15m) tall and wide. A small plateau extends outward quite a bit before dropping off, beyond it, there is nothing but the sky.</p><p>I look behind me into the darkness that lives deeper inside the cave, I can just barely see the first turn and by the looks of it the ceiling gets low enough that it shouldn’t be much further until the dragons couldn’t fit anymore. A quick glance at the blue dragon tells me she’s still busy.</p><p>Just as I’m about to turn back to get ready to make a run for it I feel its tail wrap around my shoulders and push me down. I try to push it off but the more I push the tighter it wraps around me.</p><p>I grumble and struggle trying to break free, then suddenly its head appears above me, its pupils form narrow slits cutting through the iris, a quiet growl rumbles through the cave and it slightly raises corners of its mouth to expose its teeth. Fear overwhelms me and I freeze. Seemingly satisfied it turns its head back but keeps a tight grip on me.</p><p>It takes a good while before I calm down enough to think clearly again, how did it know? I was certain it couldn’t see me. Are they capable of telepathy? Have they been reading my mind this entire time?</p><p>I look over at the body of the blue dragon, are they listening to me in this very moment?</p><p>As if to answer my question its tail loosens a bit, then unwraps fully and just rests on the brim of the nest but when I try to stand up and approach the edge to climb out the dragon raises its tail to block my path. I turn my head to make sure it isn’t sneakily looking over its back, but I spot nothing, only a wall of scales.</p><p>My heart sinks, this was confirmation that no matter what I planned, they always knew. I wasn’t safe, even in my own thoughts. They had probably been listening to me this entire time, laughing at all the silly plans I made. My knees shake and my legs give way, I drop to my knees and tears well up in my eyes.</p><p>I was trapped, even though I wasn’t locked in a cell, there was nowhere for me to go, no matter how I tried to flee, my captors would always be a dozen steps ahead of me. My breath runs flat and quick and my stomach feels sick to the point where I just want to vomit but can’t.</p><p>I close my eyes, hoping that when I open them again this will all be over. A searing hot tear rolls down my cheek and drips off my chin.</p><p>Slowly, I open my eyes again. Tears blur my vision, yet it is clear that I am still in the cave, still trapped by two dragons. All will to live leaves me, my upper body begins to shake, I can barely stay upright. I try to catch myself by putting my hands onto my thighs, but I just slip off and fall onto my side. I curl up and pull my knees to my chest. This is the worst. I didn’t think it could get any worse, but it did. I am nothing but a puppet, I have my own will, but it doesn’t matter, I am always overruled. A hopelessness so much stronger than anything I’ve felt before overwhelms me. Whenever I felt hopeless in the past there was always some hope, some light at the end of the tunnel, but this time there is nothing, just a black, empty void.</p><p>I can’t contain myself anymore and break out into sobbing and crying, I wish that it would just end, that some deity would take pity on me and make have a heart attack or something.</p><p>Who am I kidding, there are no gods in this forsaken world, and if there were, they are long dead, no one would come to rescue me or even put me out of my misery?</p><p>The vicious cycle of me hoping that this would all be over soon and me reminding myself that no, this is never going to end, continues until my mind and body are so exhausted that I simply black out and fall asleep.</p><p>My dreams are hectic and chaotic, the only constant is this feeling of dread that penetrates all of them, what am I dreading? Probably waking up.</p><p>After a night of much too light sleep I wake up in a state of panic, I try to move but every part of my body feels so sore that I prefer to stay still and just stare at my knees.</p><p>As I’m staring at my jeans a headache grows in the back of my head, like a needle slowly penetrating my brain and it slowly spreads throughout my head. I rub my temples and squint, I hadn’t had such a bead headache in ages, where did it come from all the sudden? The pain begins to pulse in rhythm with my heartbeat giving me only short periods to think clearly. <em>“Water, I haven’t had anything to drink in over a day, this must be a dehydration headache… But usually I get them a lot quicker…” </em>I ponder if it could have another cause, maybe a concussion?</p><p>In the end I settle on dehydration as the most likely cause, I just didn’t notice it yesterday because I was so…distracted.</p><p>While I’m staring at my jeans, trying to ignore the pain, something occurs to me, that even if I’m entirely at the mercy of these dragons I am still not entirely powerless. I at least still get to have thoughts of my own. Maybe, given enough time, I could get them to give me some freedom or even convince them to let me go.</p><p>Some part of me even wants to try and befriend the dragons, I mean how awesome would that be?</p><p>My thoughts come to a screeching halt when I realize what I had just thought about, wasn’t this quintessentially Stockholm syndrome? Was I really getting attached to my captors?</p><p>I should really be careful and while I could certainly try to raise the appearance of befriending them it could never be more than ruse to make a run for it. After taking a deep breath, I gather all my courage and slowly roll onto my back and get up. I grimace as my back aches. My headache flares up and several of my vertebra painfully pop. When the headache subsides enough to let me think semi clearly again, I look up from my legs, my eyes immediately fall onto the eyes of the blue dragon. It takes me moment to realize just how close its head is, if I wanted to, I could reach out and easily touch it, but I can’t find it in me to do that. Instead we stare at each other, only occasionally blinking.</p><p><em>“What is it thinking, what is it trying to achieve now?” </em>I think to myself after staring at the dragon for way too long. <em>“What is your deal? Why are you doing this to me?” </em>Silently I’m hoping to get an answer but when the dragon just continues to stare at me, not reacting to my thoughts at all, I realize that maybe it couldn’t read my thoughts after all. But then how did it anticipate my actions yesterday? I narrow my eyes and stare at it intensely in an attempt to coax its secrets out of it, but the dragon only reacts by tilting its head slightly.</p><p>I decide that they are for sure hiding something from me and that this is just a façade to make feel better, but I can’t do anything about it, so I’ll have to play along.</p><p>After what feels like another hour of us staring each other down I decide that I should probably test my boundaries a little, after all this can’t be my life now can it? Just staring at this dragon all day would get boring rather quickly. So, I slowly get up, my legs at first want to refuse after not being used for over two days but once I stand up fully, they only feel a little sore.</p><p>The dragon moves its head back to give me some space while still keeping its eyes on me. I decide to ignore it for the time being and stretch a little, afterwards I take a look around the cave again.</p><p>The light from outside throws an orange tint onto everything, making the place feel a lot warmer and more welcoming than yesterday. Whether it’s the sun setting or rising I can’t tell, I have lost all sense of time over the last two days. Outside of the different lighting the cave looks much the same, rocks and stones everywhere I look, with the far end of the cave disappearing in complete darkness.</p><p>I sigh and turn back to face the dragon. Why is it doing this with me? What is the purpose of this? Those two questions have been on my mind constantly. I shake my head in an attempt to get rid of them, how was I expecting to get an answer out of that dragon anyway? I decide to try and step out of the nest again, not in an attempt to get away, only to see how it reacts. Carefully I take one small step forward and then turn my head to look back at the dragon. It doesn’t show any reaction, it only keeps staring at me. After taking a deep breath and gathering my courage I take another step forward, I’m now less than a foot away from the edge. Again, I turn my head to see if the dragon reacts. Beside some slight movement of its head I can’t see anything, so I prepare to make the step out of the nest but as soon as I raise my leg the dragons tail moves in to block my path. I stare at the tail for a second, then look back at the dragon who proceeds to slightly shake its head.</p><p>I put my foot down again and sigh a defeated sigh, it seems I really am confined to this nest.</p><p>I sit down, fold my legs and resume staring down the dragon as I have nothing else to do.</p><p>It doesn’t take long for my mind to go completely blank, for every conscious thought to fade. In my mindless trance I don’t notice how time passes and soon the bright orange turns darker as the light fades into darkness. I don’t really notice much of this in my catatonia and at some point, I drift off to sleep.</p><p>Another night of dreamless sleep ensues and eventually I wake up again.</p><p>Drowsily I sit up and immediately regret it, my head explodes with pain and I feel like everything around me is spinning. I double over, grip my head and clench my teeth. Luckily it doesn’t take long for the pain to subside, though I still do feel like I’m stuck in washing machine.</p><p>After sitting still for some time, I either get used to it or the dizziness actually abates, I can’t tell.</p><p>I rub my eyes, there’s still some dried tears left from yesterday. I take a cursory glance around to see that nothing has changed. Nothing has moved by even a fraction of an inch, if I didn’t know better, I could think time had stopped passing.</p><p>When I look to my right, I jump a little, the dragon had rested its head just an inch away from me. Carefully I crawl away from it, I much prefer to keep at least some distance between me and those beasts. Even though I tried, the rustle still wakes the dragon up, it sleepily blinks as it lifts its head up.</p><p>It turns its head to face me and keeps sleepily blinking at me while… smiling? I narrow my eyes and furrow my eyebrows trying to make sense of its expression. It does indeed look like its smiling.</p><p>I pinch myself to make sure it’s not a fever dream but alas it is in fact not.</p><p>I rest my chin on my fist and think hard about the implications that this may have, or at least as hard as my headache lets me.</p><p>Are they capable of emotions just like I am? Do they have something like empathy even?</p><p>After a while I remember that humans are also extremely good at anthropomorphizing just about everything, I used to think that cats would actually smile at times when really, they have no concept of that. Yet I also couldn’t be too sure that these monstrosities were on the same level as your average house cat, after all they had showed some signs of greater intelligence already.</p><p>I look up at the dragon again with still furrowed eyebrows. <em>“What is the deal with you, why are you being so mysterious?”</em> Just as I finish my train of thought the dragons “smile” grows wider and wider until it is baring its teeth at me.</p><p>My heart begins to race, and I frantically look over the dragon’s body trying to make sense of its body language, nothing of the way it’s lying next to me implies it’s feeling aggressive nor can I make out clear signs of relaxation either.</p><p>I take a deep breath and look it into the eyes again, the pupils are of the normal slit shape, neither exceptionally wide nor narrow. Then I notice that its “grin” had disappeared, and it was back “smiling” slightly again. While I’m not sure I can trust its “smile” I decide to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is in fact “smiling” the way I would.</p><p>I force myself to take another couple deep breaths to calm myself down and then once my mind is calm again, I decide what to do next, not that there is much for me to do but I couldn’t spend another day playing sitting duck.</p><p>I figure it’d be best to just no acknowledge the dragons’ existence for now, seemingly it just spends the entire day watching me and doing nothing anyway. A cascade of crack and rustling noises makes me snap out of my thoughts and sends my heart rate through the roof again, panicked I look around again, only to see that the dragon had rested its head on the edge of the nest.</p><p>Great, doesn’t look like I’d get to leave the nest today either then. After staring the dragon down for a little I turn my attention to the twigs and branches in front of me. If I wanted to find something to do, I’d need to get creative.</p><p>My pondering eventually brings me back to my childhood, I had plenty of times back then where I got bored out of my mind and found entertainment in the most benign things. I’d count the bumps in the wallpaper or the floor tiles, but I couldn’t find anything nearby that I could apply this to.</p><p>The headache that’s been accompanying me throughout the day suddenly flares up, making me grimace and groan quietly. I force myself to focus on breathing slowly and steadily in the hope to that it helps to ignore the pain.</p><p>When the pain doesn’t want to go away or even weaken, I decide the best thing to do is ignore it and just power on, it’s not like there is anything to be done about it.</p><p>So, I resume my thinking, albeit I find it nigh impossible to pursue a single thought. But then after some time, in a stroke of genius, I remember how I used to build shit out of twigs and whatever I could find when I got to play in the forest either on my own or with others, it’s apparently a rather universal thing to enjoy as a kid. Since there was no shortage of sticks around, I figure that this is the best thing to do and I begin scanning my surroundings for a good base to start building off.</p><p>The moment I get up to start searching I feel dizzy again and need to kneel down again to avoid falling over. After taking a moment to recover I slowly crawl around the nest on the hunt for a couple of sticks, though the migraine and remnant dizziness don’t help.</p><p>Eventually, I find three rather straight sticks with not many branches and after some trial and error I get them to stand forming something of a tetrahedron but when I get up to gather more sticks the ground shifts enough for them to fall over again. I sigh and drop onto the ground again, how did I manage to make this kind of thing stand as a kid?</p><p>In a stroke of genius, I realize that I could tear the bark of one of the fresher looking sticks and use it as a makeshift rope.</p><p>Finding a not completely dry piece of wood proves to be quite the task but eventually I find a piece of birch that does the trick. The first piece of bark that I manage to peel off ends up rather thick and inflexible and when I try to tie it around the stick it just tears in two. I quietly grumble some curses and peel off another, thinner, piece of bark. This time I try to take special care to not rip it and success, it holds rather nicely. Now the structure only wobbles a little bit when I move.</p><p>Over the next few hours, I slowly but steadily make progress, often I need to take brakes because my headache becomes too strong to ignore, though I never fully stop.</p><p>I lose myself completely in trying to add onto it, often enough it just falls apart again but with much patience and bark ropes it ends up holding and eventually growing nearly one foot (0,3m) tall.</p><p>I manage to all but forget about the situation I’m in for a while. [Here we have a jump in the thought process]</p><p>As I continue building the headache grows so strong in begins to impair my vision, sometimes making me completely miss my mark when trying to place another twig. I also struggle remembering what I was trying to do.</p><p>It eventually gets bad enough that I simply can’t continue, and I’m forced to just sit down and stare at the ground, even breathing exercise don’t help alleviate the pain.</p><p>As I struggle to think even basic thoughts, I notice my vision slowly fading, getting darker every time I blink, then it seems like the ground is yanked away under me. I feel myself hit something and then nothing, only darkness.</p><p>Moments after I’m violently shook awake but can’t find the energy to react to it quickly, by the time I manage to sit up I hear a bunch of loud rustling and cracking sounds and when I finally sat up and opened my eyes all I see is a blurry blue blob leaving the cave extremely quickly.</p><p>Just a second later my head explodes in agony, I grimace and shut my eyes again while trying to keep my balance.</p><p>When the pain ebbs down for a moment I take a look around, my vision is still shit but I can tell that the dragon is gone, it must have been that blue blob I saw. <em>“Great, it obviously had to leave now.”</em></p><p>I fight with myself whether or not I should try to escape now or not.</p><p><em>“This is as good of an opportunity as I’ll ever get”</em> I say to myself and get onto all fours.</p><p>Already, dizziness overcomes me, and I nearly fall over again, standing up is clearly not an option.</p><p>Slowly, I crawl towards the caves entrance, my head feels like it’s going to explode any moment but somehow, I manage to keep moving, albeit incredibly slowly and constantly stumbling and nearly collapsing.</p><p>I can’t tell how much time passes but eventually I crawl out of the cave and onto the side of the mountain. In a last-ditch effort, I drag myself to the edge of the plateau and look down.</p><p>I can’t make out much but what I can tell is that below lies a steep slope that stretches on for as far as I can see.</p><p>I’m in no state to attempt walking down, not at a 45° angle, but sliding down might just work. With my feet facing downward I push myself over the edge and try to control my descent with my feet and hands, grabbing onto whatever plant is nearest and slowly descending.</p><p>In my desolate state, it isn’t long before I mess up and lose traction, within seconds I’m tumbling down the side of the mountain, what little was left of my sense of direction is lost immediately. All I can do is try and grab onto anything to regain control but even when I manage to grab a piece of shrubbery it just slips my grasp.</p><p>Just when I thought I might hit the bottom of the incline my head slams into a rock, stars dance across my vision and then everything turns dark.</p><p>At some point I wake up again, confused and dazed, not knowing where I am and what happened, it even takes me a moment to remember who I am. I try to move but my extremities don’t respond, I still manage to move my head a little and try to see, only then do I realize that my vision is just a big sky-blue blur. Before I can even begin to think about my situation everything fades to black again, and my consciousness slips away.</p><p>This time I stay unconscious for much, much longer, though I couldn’t be 100% sure. I only wake up when I someone shoves something hard and cold in between my teeth and water fills my mouth.</p><p>Coughing and choking, I snap awake with a violent twitch, my arms and legs still don’t really want to obey me and my heart races like crazy.</p><p>The moment I calmed down I begin to greedily chug down the water that is still flowing from what I presume to be a glass bottle into my mouth, my mouth and throat burn but I don’t care, I’m just glad to finally have something to drink.</p><p>The flow of water stops abruptly, and I feel the bottle get yanked from my mouth followed by some clinking and clanking noises. Moments later I feel my mouth get forced open by some invisible force and another bottle getting stuck into my mouth. This time manage to close my lips around the neck of it to keep most of the water from just flowing out of my mouth. In record time I empty that one too, my body craves more but my stomach has started rebelling against the onslaught of liquid and I feel like I’m going to throw up any moment. I hear some more clunking sounds and then something pushes me onto my side, I assume a foetal position with what little energy I can procure and take a few deep breaths in hope of calming my heart.</p><p>Before long I’m struggling to stay awake again, I try to fight it but I’m simply too exhausted and still dehydrated that I can’t and fall into a comatose sleep.</p><p>I spend a long time asleep. I still haven’t regained my sense of time, but it feels like days pass.</p><p>When I finally awaken again, my head still aches, and my head feels heavy still but at least my heartbeat is back to a more normal rate and I can actually move again.</p><p>Groggily I sit back up and rub my eyes, the headache intensifies but it’s still not as bad as previously. I blink a couple times to clear my vision and take a cursory glance around. While my eyesight still hasn’t fully recovered, I can make out my surroundings well enough. I’m back in the nest, the blue dragon lies behind me and just a bit outside the nest stands a standard supermarket case of bottled water. <em>“How did that get here…The dragons must have gotten it here, but how? They certainly didn’t just waltz into a store and paid in cash, or maybe they did?” </em>My eyes dart between the case and the dragon as I try to make sense of how a dragon would not only acquire one but also carry it up into the cave all without ever getting noticed. In the end I shake my head and give up, these things and their ways just elude my feeble human mind.</p><p>I stretch and yawn. <em>“No matter seems I’ll be stuck here for a while longer, at least I’ll have something to drink though that won’t help much since I’ll begin starving soon, I’m sure.</em></p><p>Thinking of food and drink reminds that I’m still dehydrated and should probably drink more. After a quick glance at the dragon I slowly stand up and make my way towards the case, after all it really shouldn’t have a problem with me grabbing myself something to drink right?</p><p>I proceed extremely slowly and cautiously, frequently looking over my shoulder, but the dragon doesn’t move, it just keeps its eyes trained on me. Quickly I grab two-litre bottles of water and scurry back to the nest where I immediately open one bottle and begin emptying it.</p><p>I didn’t think gulping down a litre of water could feel this good but, in that moment, it is utter bliss, I shut my eyes and just enjoy the water pouring down my throat. Within a minute I’ve emptied it and place it by my side. I eye the other bottle, pondering whether or not I should empty it now or later. My stomach answers that question for me by cramping slightly and grumbling loudly.</p><p>Not feeling like doing anything, I lie down and stare at the ceiling. My eyes wander about the grey rocks, looking for something, anything of interest but find nothing.</p><p>I shut my eyes for a moment to take in the sounds around me, at first I perceive nothing but silence but as my ears adjust I pick out some far, far away bird chatter, the breathing of the dragon, some rumbling coming deep from within the cave, I can’t quite figure out what could cause it.</p><p>As I lie there, a feeling of exhaustion overcomes me and before I know it, I’ve fallen asleep again.</p><p>When I awaken from my nap it’s night already. I immediately notice that everything got much, much colder, I rub my forearms in an attempt to keep warm, my skin feels like ice and when I try to move my back it’s stiff as a board. I look up and outside to see a clear sky, it must have been cloudy at night for the past few days, which is why it stayed warm enough for me to not freeze…</p><p>I shudder and look for a way to keep warm, making a fire is clearly not an option and I don’t have any more clothes to put on either. A gust of wind blows into the cave, the cold air sends a shiver through my entire body.</p><p>I take another look around but still, there is nothing nearby that I could use, and the deeper parts of the cave are off limits. Suddenly I feel something touch my right shoulder, I spin around to find myself face to face with the tip of the dragons’ tail and when I look up, I see its head loom above me, again with that “smile” plastered onto its lips.</p><p>It cocks its head in the direction of its side and when I turn my head to look where it’s pointing me it lifts its wing just a little bit.</p><p><em>“Is it…offering me shelter?” </em>I wonder and look back at the dragon who proceeds to nod its head in a “go, go” like fashion.</p><p><em>“They haven’t actively tried to harm in a while… and it got me water once I nearly died of dehydration…”</em> My eyes dart between the dragons’ wing and head, I’m not entirely convinced that I can trust it, but at the same time I would freeze to death if I didn’t do something and this is the best thing I have currently.</p><p>Reluctantly I crawl over the dragons’ side on all fours, it lifts its wing a little more to let me hide under it.</p><p>I lie down and nestle against its scales, they’re surprisingly warm to the touch.</p><p>Once I get comfortable, the dragon lowers its wing again, putting me into complete darkness. I feel its tail snake its way up between me and its wing, the scales rubbing against my skin, warm and hard, yet flexible. Much to my delight it refrains from wrapping me in it and only places it in front of.</p><p>While I’m not entirely at ease, the warmth coming off the dragons’ body calms me quite a bit and without even thinking about it I snuggle against its tail, wrapping my arms around it and resting my head against it.</p><p>As my body warms up, I begin to feel sleepier and sleepier, soon I can’t keep my eyes open anymore. I drift off to sleep with a smile on my face, this certainly felt nice…</p><p>After an uneventful night I eventually stir awake, feeling much more rested than I did for almost a week now. In my drowsy state I forget that I took shelter under the dragons’ wing and my heart sinks for a moment before I remember. I try to make my way out but before I can get far the dragon moves its tail aside and lifts its wing. As I crawl out from under it, I’m greeted by the dragon smiling at me and looking rather content. I can’t keep myself from smiling back at it, my reservations towards it are starting to wane, maybe, just maybe, they aren’t entirely evil.</p><p>I sit down a couple feet away from the dragon and stare out of the cave, thinking what I should do today.</p><p>My thoughts are interrupted by my stomach complaining quite loudly about not having food in way too long. The dragon cocks its head and stares at me even more intensely than before, I can actually feel its eyes boring into me. <em>“Where to get food from up here…”</em> I think to myself, it’s quite unlikely that I’d find anything edible in the cave and judging by what little I saw of the outside we are at far too great altitude for much to grow.</p><p>The dragon makes some sort of murring noise, and when I look up at it, it nods its head in the direction of the bottle case.</p><p>All the remaining bottles of water now stand neatly beside it and the case itself is filled to the brim with what looks to be fruits from afar. I jump up, run over, grab an apple off the top and greedily take a big bite out of it. In just a couple minutes I scarf down the entire thing and grab the next one as I’m still chewing on the remains of the first apple. The second one is gone almost as fast, a third one too but when I grab the fourth one, I can already feel my stomach revolting again because it’s nearly full.</p><p>I make my way back to the nest and slowly nibble away at the apple until I really feel like I’m about to explode. There’s still about half of it left, I certainly won’t throw it away but at the same time who knows when I’ll have enough space again to eat it. As I’m pondering what to do, I feel a familiar nudge.</p><p>I look up at the dragon, half expecting that it wants me to do something, I almost feel like a dog in training. The dragons smile turns into a slight grin for just a moment, then it lowers its head and intently stares at the apple in my hand. My eyes dart between the dragons’ eyes and the apple, does the dragon want to have it?</p><p>It bows its head oh so slightly in what I think is supposed to be a nod. I furrow my eyebrows, now I’m sure it can either read my mind or is really good at reading my body language. Not wanting to make it wait further, in fear of what it might do to me if I do, I stand up and take a few steps forward until I’m face to face with it.</p><p>Standing right in front of it makes the dragons’ incredible size even more apparent, its eyes are nearly as wide as my forearm is long. My heartrate spikes and I can feel myself beginning to sweat, even though I don’t feel that threatened. Carefully I raise one arm and hold out the apple on my flat palm. The dragon opens its mouth a little and moves its head forward to carefully pick the apple off my palm. The moment I feel the apple getting lifted of my hand I drop my arm and take a step backwards. The dragon looks almost disappointed that I stepped back so quickly, though it appears to quickly get over it. Then in one quick motion, it jerks its head forward and swallows the tiny apple.</p><p>I can’t keep myself from imagining myself in place of that apple, the thought of how easily I could be devoured by the dragon makes me shudder and back off even more. As if the dragon can smell my fear its eyes lock onto me and it makes a sad, almost hurt sounding sound.</p><p>Fear gets replaced with confusion, I did not expect that type of reaction from it, some part of me wants to console it but at the same time I know that I’ll do better keeping some distance between me and it.</p><p>The dragon looks at me with sad eyes for a moment longer and rests its head on the edge of the nest.</p><p>I spend a while just standing where I am and looking at nothing in particular as I’m lost in my thoughts, trying to decide whether or not the dragons are trustworthy.</p><p>Before I can reach a conclusion, I’m snapped out of my thoughts by a cold breeze blowing into the cave. I look outside, only to see that the sun has already begun to set again, the entire sky is of a bright orange colour. <em>“Have I really been asleep for that long? Generally, I’ve been sleeping way too much, am I having a case of cabin fever?”</em></p><p>I decide that, whether or not I have cabin fever, I’ll do good moving at least a little more than I have been, that is if the dragon lets me.</p><p>The goose bumps on my arm remind me that I should keep warm, night is falling soon, and it’ll get freezing cold again. Since the dragon is still my best source of warmth I semi reluctantly trudge over to its wing. It seems to immediately know what I want and raises its wing just far enough for me to crawl under, then tucking me in and placing its tail next to me.</p><p>With the knowledge that it doesn’t want to harm me, yet, I manage to actually relax and get comfortable for the first time in a long time.</p><p>I wonder if I could somehow show the dragon my appreciation and get it to give me some more freedoms.</p><p>The best thing I can come up with is petting it, so I just gently pet its tail. It feels kind of strange, I can feel where the scales overlap but the scales themselves are really smooth and while the individual scales feel quite hard their bodies still end up really flexible.</p><p>In response the dragon murrs happily, it almost sounds like a purr.</p><p>Though I feel sceptical that the dragon can actually feel my light touch through its scales I keep going until I begin to drift off to sleep, at which point I just rest my arm on its tail.</p><p>That night I dream off me wandering through a blizzard, my flesh frozen to the bone, I can barely keep moving, I’m mere minutes away from dying of hypothermia, but I’m not afraid. I know that I’m close to salvation. Then a dragon appears in front of me, it looks almost like a carbon copy of the blue dragon, though it’s a fair bit smaller.</p><p>Gathering what little energy I have left I run up to it, my arms spread wide, I jump up and when I touch the dragon, the blizzard disappears but the cold in my body remains.</p><p>The dragon wraps its front legs around me and presses me against the underside of its belly. It then rolls onto its back and wraps itself in its wings, covering me as well.</p><p>A strong, comforting warmth floods through my body, washing away all the cold and discomfort in me. The gentle embrace combined with the relaxing warmth and my exhaustion quickly make me tired. In no time I’m struggling to keep my eyes open.</p><p>As I’m about to doze off together with this dragon I wake up in the real world again.</p><p>I take a while to realize that I actually woke up and when I do I, for the first time, don’t feel like I’m in danger, I don’t feel safe either, but I feel that the dragon isn’t a threat. Then I notice that instead of the tail I’ve got the dragons head right next to me, it must have done that during the night.</p><p>Being so close to its head still makes me uncomfortable, I can’t keep myself from envisioning how it’d only take seconds for it to eat me. Carefully, I try to crawl out from between its body and head but still it notices and wakes up before I can move more than a foot (0,3m).</p><p>The dragon lifts its head and shakes it vigorously before resuming its usual staring down at me, I return its stare as usual. Then I feel something change in its demeanour, aside from its “smile” growing wider than usual, if I had to describe it, I would call it excited.</p><p>I furrow my eyebrows and narrow my eyes. I don’t know what it finds so exciting and I find that rather worrying.</p><p>Soon enough the dragon calms down again and we continue staring each other down in silence.</p><p>Eventually the silence is interrupted by my stomach growling and aching in hunger, I look over to the leftover apples from yesterday and sit up to go and grab some. I figure three will do the job for now but before I return, I quickly count how many I have left, not knowing when I’ll be able to get more food, I might need to begin rationing what I have. <em>“…six, seven, eight. That’s it. Eight...”</em></p><p>I sigh and head back to the nest, at this rate my food will last me another day at most. I diligently eat my breakfast, while it is filling my body still craves for more, something with more fats and protein.</p><p>After I finish my meagre meal, I get up again, I stand still, pondering what to do for a while. I’m itching to do something, but I can’t come up with anything that doesn’t potentially anger the dragon.</p><p>In the end I decide to try and push my luck a little, so far, the most the dragon had done is growl at me when I did something it didn’t like. I take a couple steps to get outside the nest, it doesn’t react at all outside of turning its head to keep an eye on me. I take a deep breath and slowly take small steps toward the entrance of the cave, hoping that it doesn’t look like I’m trying to escape.</p><p>And indeed, it appears to work, the dragon remains silent and when I look over my shoulder it’s still just watching me.</p><p>Eventually I’m only about 30 feet (10m) away from the entrance but when I take another step forward, I hear the dragon quietly growl, I slowly raise my foot to take on more step, but the dragons growl grows louder and much more aggressive, so I quickly take a few steps backwards. It immediately falls quiet again.</p><p>I take a deep breath and turn around, this is as far as I can go apparently, not exactly what I wanted but at least it’s much further than previously. As I make my way back, I notice that the black dragon is absent and that in fact I hadn’t seen it much at all, I assume that it spends most of its days on food gathering duty and that it only returns once night falls.</p><p>Once I arrive back at the nest, I decide that I’ll also try and see how far into the cave I can go, I have a feeling it might be a lot further, but I can’t be sure.</p><p>Just like previously I slowly take one step after another into the darkness deeper in the cave while keeping my ears peeled for any sound the dragon might make and occasionally looking over my shoulder. Soon I arrive at a left turn, it’s already pretty dim and once I turn the corner it’ll be nigh complete darkness, which quite frankly scares me, but that dragon has not made a single sound yet, so I have to keep going.</p><p>Much more slowly I turn left and begin to walk into the eternal darkness ahead and even once I’m entirely out of the dragons’ field of view it doesn’t make a sound, or am I just not hearing it?</p><p>I hold my breath and try to be as quiet as I can be but outside of the wind, my heartbeat and the blood rushing through my ears I hear nothing. I gather my courage and continue my path into the cave, navigating has become much more difficult due to the lack of light and I find myself holding my hands out to feel for the walls constantly.</p><p>After a hand full of steps, the fear of the darkness overwhelms me, and I quickly turn around and run back. I only stop once I’ve put a couple dozen feet between me and the darkness. After taking a few moments to calm down, I take a deep breath assess how much freedom of movement I have now.</p><p>It’s not a lot but much better than having to sit in a nest all day.</p><p>Feeling a little winded already, I figure it’s best to return to the dragons’ side for now.</p><p>Once I get back into the nest, I wind up just lying still for quite a while, until it nudges me gently.</p><p>I turn my head and look at it with confusion, it nudges me again, more forceful this time. Does it want me to do something?</p><p>Not being sure what it wants from me I decide to oblige just to prevent the dragon from taking any harsh measure.</p><p>Once I got up the dragon proceeds to nudge my back rather hard, sending me stumbling forward deeper into the cave, I keep walking forward after catching my balance again as there obviously is something deeper inside the mountain it wants me to see. Though the thought of having to go through the darkness makes my heart sink, at least I’m not on my own now.</p><p>As we walk into the cave, the dragon never staying more than a couple of feet (~60cm) away from me, the light from outside quickly disappears.</p><p>After the first turn I have to slow down a lot as I fear that I’ll trip and fall, luckily the dragon just lets me and slows down as well.</p><p>Soon I wind up stumbling constantly as the ground gets more and more uneven, after nearly falling flat twice the dragon picks me up be the neck of my shirt again and proceeds to carry me, I want to struggle and try to break free but force myself not to as that would likely just make it worse.</p><p>I hear the splashing of water in the distance, there must be an underground river or lake of sorts nearby. Getting closer to the source of the sound, the air also starts getting a lot more humid, could it be that we have a hot spring of sorts under this mountain?</p><p>Eventually I feel the dragon stopping and carefully placing me on the floor, as I am wearing shoes, I can’t feel the exact texture of the stone beneath me but from what I can tell it seems to be covered in some sort of slimy mossy algae.</p><p>I try looking around to see where we are, but I there’s nothing but darkness, even when holding my hand fractions of an inch (0,5cm) away from my face I see nothing. I attempt to take a step forward, but my feet slip away from underneath me and I wind up falling onto my butt immediately.</p><p>Suddenly a huge, bright orange column of flames burst from the darkness behind me, its heat tingling on my skin and its shine nearly blinding me, the flames illuminate the surrounding cave as if it were broad daylight.</p><p>Once my eyes got used to the sudden light, I manage to take a look at what lies in front of me.</p><p>I can see a large underground cavity extending out several hundred feet (100-160m) onwards and several dozen feet (20-30m) upwards. The cave is mostly filled with water with only small paths off to the side remaining, what lies on the other end I cannot make out as it lies in darkness again.</p><p>A steady stream of steam is rising off of the waters nearly undisturbed surface making the air almost unpleasant to breathe.</p><p>Just as I turn around to find the source of the flames, they die out leaving me in complete darkness again,</p><p>Moments later, a sallow blue-greyish light shine from between the dragons’ teeth and a second later it spits out a glowing ball of undefinable shape that is seemingly made of light. It bobs up and down twice, then hovers 30 feet (10m) ahead and 20 feet (7m) up.</p><p>The ball of light illuminates the cave just enough for me to see most of the dragon and about a third of the lake.</p><p>I stare at the ball in disbelief, what is this? Some sort of magic? But magic doesn’t exist, this must be an illusion. Could it be that I am still dreaming?<br/>I pinch myself, but I don’t wake up.</p><p>No, this is very much real and actually happening right now, I turn my eyes away from the light and towards the dragon.</p><p>The confusion in my eyes must have been blatantly obvious as what must be a smug smirk appears on the dragons’ face, it then proceeds to nudge me into the direction of the lake.</p><p>Thanks to the ground being supremely slippery the dragons’ gentle nudge sends me skidding across the floor.</p><p>With my look just growing even more confused the dragon wrinkles its nose at me and nods its head in the direction of the lake.</p><p>Turning towards the lake again I see nothing but water and darkness, that’s when it hits me, I am absolutely caked in dried dragon saliva and dirt and probably stink to the high heavens.</p><p>I jump up and nearly fall over again because I forgot just how slippery the rocks are, slowly I teeter towards the water and stop at the edge to take off my shoes and my clothes except for my underwear.</p><p>Slowly stepping into the water, I expect it to be scathing hot but much to my surprise it is not too unbearable, at first it still stings but my body soon gets used to it.</p><p>As I wade deeper into the lake, I can feel the flakes of dried gunk peeling off my skin and looking at the water around me it quickly turns opaque with some pieces floating to the top and bobbing about on the water like miniature ice floe.</p><p>The ground only drops off slowly, so I need to walk in quite far before the water reaches my neck, I quickly dunk my head under water and try to scrub off the dirt that sticks to my face.</p><p>Then, I try cleaning myself as thoroughly as I can with just my hands, all the crud coming off of my skin feels absolutely heavenly, making me feel the happiest and cleanest I had felt in months.</p><p>Once I feel that I cleaned myself well enough, I decide to play around in the water for a bit never straying further then about two dozen feet away from the shore.</p><p>Eventually I begin to feel symptoms of my body overheating and climb out of the water.</p><p>Somehow, I manage to nearly fall over again the moment I step out of the water.</p><p>Carefully, I sit down to prevent any further accidents and then shake my arms and head.</p><p>A quiet squishing sound catches my attention and I turn around immediately.</p><p>I find myself nose to nose with the dragon, I freeze for a second, then look up into the dragon’s eyes.</p><p>It sniffs me, nods in approval and then draws a deep breath.</p><p>As it breathes out it blows warm, almost hot, air at me quickly drying me off.</p><p>A couple of deep breaths later I find myself completely dry.</p><p>I pick my clothes back up and decide to smell them before even thinking about putting them back on and as expected they reek to the high heavens. I gag and retch, then throw them into the water. I attempt to wash them to the best of my ability, but the smell has stuck to clothes too much to get rid of much of it. I do manage to clean my underwear to a degree where it’s bearable again, but the rest is beyond any salvation.</p><p>Defeated I throw the rest onto a nearby rock and turn to the dragon again, it seems to know what I was thinking and cocks its head in the direction of what I assume must be the way back up.</p><p>As we start heading off into the darkness the ball of light that had been hovering above the lake all this time starts moving as well, quickly catching up to us and then hovering a bit ahead of us illuminating the way.</p><p>This time instead of getting carried I get to follow the dragons lead while taking a look at the surroundings.</p><p>As we leave the lake behind us less and less algae and moss are growing on the increasingly sharp and pointy rocks.</p><p>Some of the smaller and pointer pebbles cut into my feet making me wince every other step I take, the dragon quickly notices, and I find myself suddenly getting wrapped and lifted off the ground by its tail.</p><p>I internally thank it for not making me suffer through the remaining walk back and sigh a sigh of relief.</p><p>The cave itself is rather underwhelming to look at, it’s all just grey and brown ish rocks, like the entrance. Some more weathered than others, the most exciting thing I spot during the entire ten-minute walk back is a small lizard scurrying away from the light behind some rocks. I didn’t expect to find life in this cave, much less with the dragons around.</p><p>After a little while I start seeing the light from outside shining around an upcoming corner.</p><p>The evening sun is shining right into the cave, only being obstructed by some clouds.</p><p>I cover my eyes as the sudden bright light blinds me, I didn’t know light could hurt so much.</p><p>The dragon keeps walking a little bit further, then puts me down and unwraps its tail.</p><p>It has conveniently placed itself between me and the cave entrance, blocking most of the light with its body. I quietly thank it and stretch, after the bath I suddenly feel quite tired and almost just want to lie down and nap. With tired eyes I take a glance around to see that nothing has changed in the hour we spent underground.</p><p>Just as I’m about to resume my mindless staring at nothing I realize that I had just watched the dragon breathe fire and not burn itself, and I don’t even dare how to think about how it conjured that ball of light. I furrow my eyebrows and stare at it intently. <em>What are your secrets, how, how did you do that?” </em>I remember that I had read some articles of someone attempting to come up with a mechanism that allowed for fiery breath but failed immediately as no matter how you would create the flames, you’d burn yourself. There was an argument to be made for your saliva protecting you for a couple seconds by evaporating and thus absorbing major parts of the heat, but the dragon had kept the fire alive for over half a minute at least, so that wasn’t possible.</p><p>Even if you ignore that problem, how did the dragon create the flames to begin with? I’m pretty certain that it can’t be just using methane gas or something similar.</p><p>I close my eyes and try to recall the look of the flames as vividly as I can.</p><p>One thing sticks out almost immediately, the flame was extremely bright, indicating that the temperature must have been rather high, north of 1200°C. Then I realize that the column of flames stretched quite some distance, possibly a hundred feet (33m) and that it didn’t go straight, it arched.</p><p>That and the fact that the flames looked very similar to the flamethrowers of old that ran on liquid fuel, makes me think that dragons either use pyrophoric liquids, a hypergolic mix of two fluids or have an organ that can ignite whatever fuel their body produces. Though none of those possibilities sound too realistic, how would something like that even evolve? The energy required to synthesize large amounts of unstable chemicals, preventing them from burning while still inside the dragon, preventing the fire from burning the tissue it touches and probably many other problems just make it sound impossible. Yet here I sit, with definitive proof right in front of me.</p><p>I narrow my eyes and take a good look at the dragon, hoping to coax out its secrets but instead jump back when I see its face only a foot (30cm) away from mine.</p><p>It’s staring at me with its gigantic eyes as always but something in its expression is different, it feels like it’s… listening?</p><p>But I wasn’t thinking out loud, or was I?</p><p>No, I wasn’t I’m sure, but then what was the dragon listening to? I listen to our surroundings but there is nothing out of the ordinary.</p><p>My eyes return to the dragon, just how many things is this mysterious beast hiding from me, what kind of magic is it capable off? Are there other beings like this, lurking in the proverbial shadows, capable of just as much or even more magic than it? Has humanity been living in some illusion? Are we really just lower beings that dragons allow to exist alongside them? Why haven’t we found any tracks of them? Were those fairy tales true all along?</p><p>My head begins to spin as all these questions pop up but stay unanswered. My eyes dart all over the dragon, hoping to find some clue or answer.</p><p>Eventually my eyes get stuck on the dragon’s eyes again and suddenly I notice that the colour isn’t as uniform as I thought. The iris isn’t just an azure blue disk, it has lines or lighter and darker tones running throughout it. How had I not noticed those, yet I wonder.</p><p>My eyes have grown completely stuck, I can’t take my eyes away from it even when I try.</p><p>I’m completely enthralled in her gaze, staring into the endless abyss that is her black pupils cutting through the otherwise completely azure blue iris.</p><p>While I sit there, unmoving and unthinking, I feel a presence encroach on me, I fail to break free of the dragons’ almost hypnotizing gaze as whatever this presence is draws closer and closer.</p><p>The presence has almost reached me when I manage to finally free my mind of the invisible shackles that the dragons stare had put on me, I spin around immediately, breath heavy and heart racing but there is nothing, just rocks and darkness lie where ever I look.</p><p>Abruptly, the spirit that had just been approaching me strikes from behind me where the dragon should be lying, it doesn’t appear to take on any physical form, and it only exists as a spectre.</p><p>My head feels like it is going to explode, my thoughts shatter leaving nothing but a ringing, screeching noise that sounds like it comes straight out of the worst nightmares.</p><p>I hold my head with both hands and hunch over trying to form any conscious thought but nothing sticks, my mind can’t form even the simplest of thoughts the only things that still work are breathing and my heart, I want to cry and scream but nothing happens my brain is completely frozen in a state of chaos and desolation.</p><p>The pain keeps growing as if shards of my consciousness try to pierce through my skull from the inside, like the shrapnel of a grenade, burning hot yet ice cold at the same time.</p><p>Completely paralyzed I lie there for what feels like an eternity before the turmoil in my mind begins to die down, eventually first conscious thoughts start appearing again, <em>what? Why? Who?</em> Are questions flying through my consciousness finding nothing for an answer?</p><p>Internally I start to pick up the fragments of my thoughts slowly brining order to the madness within me, that’s when I notice that I am not alone in my head anymore.</p><p>At first the traces it left are minor, memories that had been long forgotten started turning up again, next I find memories that never happened like that and had been tampered with by <em>someone.</em></p><p>Eventually I find some memories that aren’t even mine, they are nonsensical short scenes from high above the clouds looking down over vast grasslands, mountains and the occasional human settlement. While trying to make sense of what this could mean and where it came from, I notice that presence that had just struck my mind lurking off at the edge of my consciousness, unlike before where it had been stalking me from the outside, it was now very much within the boundaries of my thoughts.</p><p>Chasing it within my brain, every time I draw close to it slips me, simply eludes my grasp, getting frustrated I attempt to assault it with my own thoughts, I had never done so before but for some reason it felt almost natural for me to do so, much to my surprise the attack actually connects, however it has no noticeable effect on the manifestation.</p><p>It stops, holds completely still for a second, I almost think I finally got when it unexpectedly starts to rapidly grow in size engulfing all that is my thoughts, all that is me, wiping out any semblance of mind again.</p><p>The spirit overwhelms me with ease and takes control of all of my brain and body, suddenly I have no control over anything I do, and my arms start moving on their own.</p><p>When I try to take back control over what was mine just seconds ago the presence simply pushes me further down into the depths of my consciousness.</p><p>As unexpectedly as it struck and took over it leaves again, or much rather retreats back to a small corner of my mind, I manage to eventually fight my way out of the fog of the abyss beneath and regain control of my body. I shoot up immediately, gasping for air, my heart pounding so hard it might just jump out of my chest and my entire body drenched in cold sweat.</p><p>My panicked eyes dart around the cave to see more of the same that I saw before, rocks and darkness.</p><p>“W-w-what was that.” I whisper meekly with my voice shaky, inches away from having a nervous breakdown.</p><p>I look over to the dragon, it appears it didn’t move either since this started, I take a moment to gather all my courage and for the first time speak to it, I don’t expect much more than a confused look or a head tilt, because why would it understand?<br/>“D-did y-you also… feel that?” I stutter and fumble my words just barely speaking loud enough for even myself to understand them.</p><p>The dragon doesn’t budge, not even blinking it just sits there staring back at me.</p><p>“R-right.” I look downwards at my lap <em>“What did I even think, it could never understand what I say anyways.”</em></p><p>The cave falls silent, the only things piercing the silence are the sound of my heartbeat and my own breathing.</p><p>I lose track of time as I dwell in my thoughts, the remnant of the spirit still lurking off to the side, out of reach for me to do anything about it.</p><p>After hours of nothing I begin to slowly doze off, then as I about to fall over and fall asleep a rumble goes through my mind, I can almost make out words in it, but they are too distorted to be of any use.</p><p>Instantly I snap out of my trance looking around yet again but still there is nothing to be seen, then I notice that the presence had drawn closer to my thoughts again. As I prepare myself for another attack, it happens again, a growl runs through my consciousness but this time it’s a lot clearer.</p><p>It seems to be a short sentence with the only word being clearly understandable being <strong><em>“me.”</em></strong>.</p><p>Confusion floods my thoughts drowning out everything else, it appears as if something is trying to communicate with me, but what was it? From where was this voice coming? Why me? What are its intentions? The questions keep flooding in and distract me so much that I almost miss the third rumble reverberating through me, this time it is crystal clearer, there is no misunderstanding the words it says.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. End to Loneliness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>
  <strong> <em>“It was me.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em>“Who?”</em> What was a mess of questions looking for answers just seconds ago is now dominated by this one question, nothing else matters anymore, and who is this thing talking to me?</p><p>Out of nowhere I feel something wrap around my leg and gently tug on it, I look down at my leg to see that the dragon had wrapped its tail around my leg, I raise my view to look at its face.</p><p>Just as we lock eyes and I hear it again <strong><em>“It was me, the one sitting in front of you.”</em></strong> This time it’s less of a grumble and more of a super deep voice with a lot of reverb.</p><p>My eyes grow wide as the realization dawns on me, I slowly mouth a “you?” not daring to speak a single word right now, the dragon nods at me while I hear <strong><em>“Yes, all of this was me, I broke into your mind and took control to build a… telepathic connection as you would call it.”</em></strong></p><p>Questions flood my mind yet again, it takes me a moment to sort through them enough to actually be able to form proper thoughts again.</p><p>“I-I have so many questions right now…” Most of the fear is gone as I am now bursting with curiosity, maybe these dragons are a lot more humanlike than I thought they were, maybe just maybe I was not doomed to die some sort of horrific death.</p><p><strong><em>“I know little one, but first come here you must be freezing sitting over there with barely any clothes on.”</em></strong> By now the voice had grown a lot less scary as I manage to notice some of the subtle undertones that I missed before, there seems to be some almost motherly concern in its voice.</p><p>Without questioning it I get up and slowly stumble over to the dragon, as I stand up, I realize just how cold I had gotten, my legs are stiff and feel like I stuck them into a freezer, my back flares up with pain as the ice-cold muscles stretch and contract and when I try to move my fingers, they just barely obey my commands.</p><p>While I take one gentle careful step after another, slowly making my way over to it, the dragon already begins to wrap most of its tail around me. Much to my surprise it manages to cover me almost from neck to toe with just about a dozen turns of its tail, the touch of its warm scales on my skin almost burns because of how much I had cooled down, if I would have waited another hour longer, I might just have died of hypothermia.</p><p>This time I don’t actually mind being immobilized by its tail and snuggle into the warm gentle embrace of its coils.</p><p>I close my eyes and just enjoy the warmth slowly permeating throughout my body, as my body slowly warms up again and all the stress catches up to me in the form of a tremendous tiredness.</p><p>Trying to open my eyes again proofs futile and I can feel my mind slip away into the land of dreams.</p><p>Just before everything fades to black, I hear it talk to me again <strong><em>“It’s okay little one you had a difficult day today, go sleep I will watch over you and keep you safe.”</em></strong></p><p>A smile grows on my face and then I finally lose the battle against the tiredness and fall asleep.</p><p>My dreams are filled by all sorts of strange memories that aren’t mine, most of them make no sense as they are just short disjointed excerpts from the life of something, a few times however, bigger memories force their way into my dreams, one of them features the black dragon I saw the other day for a significant period of time.</p><p>I don’t make the connection until I wake up much later but what I was seeing that... night… were some of the memories the dragon had left behind when it broke into my mind.</p><p>After sleeping for what must have been a dozen hours, I feel myself slowly drift back into consciousness.</p><p>Slowly I open my eyes, everything is very blurry and the light around me appears to be oddly blue shifted. Blinking a couple of times to get my eye to focus I then see that the dragon had put its wing over us as a sort of makeshift tent.</p><p>I attempt to stretch not remembering how yesterday had ended and find myself pressing my arms against the dragon’s scales.</p><p>“Oh right” I mumble sleepily and quietly. Me stretching makes the dragon wake from its sleep as well, it sleepily blinks a couple of times then looks over to me and smiles at me.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Welcome back sleepyhead, it seems I tired you out pretty good yesterday.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>It gently nudges my head and slightly loosens its tail to allow me to move a little bit.</p><p>I nod and think to myself <em>“I did but it felt so good”</em> I use my newfound ability to move to thoroughly stretch.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I am sorry if I was a little rough with you yesterday wittle one, establishing a connection with you was harder than I thought it was and I ended up accidentally doing more damage then I wanted to.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I laugh weakly, “So that was all you yesterday? I felt like I was going insane”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Yes, it is what I had to do to be able to talk to you like this…I’m sorry I nearly broke you.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>The dragon looks down, almost as if it is ashamed of its actions.</p><p>Feeling a lot more comfortable now that I know that it is actually capable of emotions, I feel emboldened to reach out and give it a gentle pet.</p><p>The dragon closely watches my hand as I slowly reach out, I subconsciously tense up as my palm gets closer to the dragons’ scales, then when my hand makes contact, I hold still for a second to see the dragon’s response, it at first keeps looking at my hand then looks over to me.</p><p>It sees my tense facial expression and gives me a warm smile. <strong><em>“It’s okay you can go pet me. I don’t bite…usually.”</em></strong></p><p>I slowly rub my hand across its snout, the dragon closes its eyes and keeps smiling, and it even nuzzles his head against my hand a little bit.</p><p>After a while I withdraw my hand again and make myself comfortable with the dragon’s tail still curled around me.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“That felt surprisingly good, how did you get that idea?”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“U-uhm well we usually do that with our pets and they all greatly enjoy it so I thought I might as well try?” I stutter a little unsure what to say at first. “N-not that I think of you as a pet, if anything I am your pet.” I quickly correct myself.</p><p>The dragon makes a sound that I can best describe as a laugh but with a super low pitch, almost like a happy growl with a stutter.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Well at first, I did think of keeping you as a pet or snack, but I have to admit you are starting to grow on me and you are definitely smarter than I thought you humans would be.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>My face turns red in embarrassment while my heart sinks at the same time. “S-so the original plan was to just eat me?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Indeed, however I did want to bring you here anyways since my husband had never seen a human in person, so I figured I’d pick up this…curiosity that is you and show him.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I shudder at the thought of being nothing more than some odd collectors’ item to these dragons.</p><p>“H-husband you say? So, you dragons do form permanent bonds like us humans?”</p><p><strong><em>“Well we kind of do for different reasons though.”<br/></em></strong>“Oh…So erm what species do you belong to? Your looks remind me a lot of how we humans used to depict dragons over 2000 years ago but are you actually one?”<br/><strong><em>“This time the looks are indeed not deceiving you, we are both descendants from what you refer to as dragons, as for what we use to refer to ourselves, we just stole your term as it works well and in the end, does it really matter? What we refer to ourselves as does not change who we.”<br/></em></strong>I ponder over its words for a minute. “Since you seem to take at least some things from us humans did you also take on the tradition of naming each other?”<br/><strong><em>“We do indeed. I think we started doing it a couple hundred years after we arrived. My name would probably translate to the word Skaftá and my husband would be Scáthán.”</em></strong></p><p>“S- Skaftá? That sounds so cool, it’s nice to get to know you. Oh, and you mentioned that your kind <em>“arrived” </em>on this planet?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“It’s nice to get to know you too Arya. Yes, we didn’t always live on this planet, how we arrived is unknown. The common theory is that the planet we used to live on got destroyed, shattered, by a meteor. Luckily dragon eggs are extremely sturdy, nigh indestructible at certain times of their development, so while no dragons survived our eggs did. They must have spent millions or even billions of years drifting through space until eventually one fragment got caught by earth’s gravity.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>My eyes widen in awe. “That sounds sad and crazy unlikely to happen…”</p><p><strong><em>“It is but I don’t think too much about it, in the end it’s the past, nothing we can do about it.”<br/></em></strong>“True… Does that mean you don’t know your parents?”<br/><strong><em>“No actually, I am not part of what we call the first generation. I was born a mere 384 years ago. My parents were 2<sup>nd</sup> genners born roughly 1800 years ago and my grandparents hatched from the eggs that came onto this planet via meteorite.”</em></strong></p><p>I blink a few times trying to process just how old dragons get. “You are telling me you are almost 400 years old? And your parents are approaching 2000 years in age? Just how long do guys live or are you immortal?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“We age very differently from you humans, I may not look like it, but I was born no less than 384 years ago, as for the immortality bit, we very much aren’t, we live for a long time, approximately 2000 years, but we can die much earlier just like any living being.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“Two <strong>thousand</strong> years?” My jaw drops in astonishment.</p><p>I take a moment to collect my thoughts again. “So how many of you are there then? If you grow so old there must be millions or more of you by now.”<br/><strong><em>“Heh no, there are only a few hundred of us maybe a thousand at most, this planet couldn’t support too many more of us anyways. You see we have always taken care to not impact the ecosystem around us too much, so while we do wreak havoc on the population wherever we move, we do move frequently enough to not kill off any local species. This means any one dragon may require up to several hundred thousand square kilometres of land to survive.</em></strong></p><p>“Oh wow, that’s an inconceivable amount of land… but also very considerate of your kind, we humans wouldn’t do that.”</p><p>The dragon nods slowly.</p><p>“Hmmm makes me wonder do humans actually know or ever knew your kind existed?”</p><p><strong><em>“They used to but now they don’t. When we first arrived, the dragons saw humans as just another food source, which to say the least was a huge mistake. You guys are a fierce bunch for sure almost wiped us out at first.”<br/></em></strong>The dragon pauses for a second then continues. <strong><em>“Anyways, these legends of dragon slaying knights don’t come from nowhere, though they may not have been as large as they were described.”</em></strong></p><p>I chuckle. “Yeah humans love to exaggerate, don’t they? Anyways, now that we got to know each other what’s going to happen with me? You certainly won’t let me leave now, or will you?”<br/><strong><em>“Honestly, I haven’t thought about that yet. I’ll talk with my husband about it when he comes back…”</em></strong></p><p>A frown appears on my face, at the thought of what could happen if her husband doesn’t want to keep me.</p><p><strong><em>“Oh, trust me little one, he won’t dare to lay a claw on you.”<br/></em></strong>Her sudden answer to my thoughts startles me. “W-wait did you just read my thoughts?”</p><p>Skaftá grins like the Cheshire cat and nods.</p><p>“Could you always read my thoughts? Even when you found me two days ago?”<br/>She again nods slowly. <strong><em>“If I want to, I can read your thoughts and memories like an open book but rest assured that I won’t go too deep if you don’t want me to.”</em></strong></p><p>“U-uhm that’s… assuring?”<br/><strong><em>“Oh I’m sorry this must feel horribly intrusive for you but trust me I’m not constantly rummaging through your brain looking at whatever I find.”<br/></em></strong>I nod slowly. “Right, that makes feel a bit better about it, is there anything I could do to not let you look at my thoughts? Say if I want some privacy?”<br/>She spends a minute or two pondering her answer. <strong><em>“There isn’t anything that I couldn’t force my way around but if I see that your mind has retracted to the deeper corners of your consciousness, I would take that as a hint to let you be.”</em></strong></p><p>Nodding slowly, I feel most of my worries wash away she seems rather considerate from what I can tell.</p><p>“Thank you very much.”</p><p>She smiles warmly at me and blinks slowly.</p><p>“Another thing that kept me thinking, did I actually see you breathe fire yesterday?”<br/><strong><em>“Yes you very much did.”</em></strong><br/>“Awesome, so the legends are quite accurate in some regards, but how do you breathe fire doesn’t it hurt?”<br/><strong><em>“Well you see, besides being way too huge, being able to breathe fire and just generally not fitting into this world we can also use magic. We mostly use it to keep ourselves from scorching our mouth and throat when breathing fire and to stay hidden from the prying eyes of humans. For how we breathe fire, we have 2 special organs that constantly use a small amount of magic energy to turn waste compounds floating around our body into highly unstable molecules. So unstable in fact that certain diets cause our fiery breath to only require one organ to function as the compounds ignite on contact with air.”</em></strong></p><p>I listen with starry eyes, absorbing her words like a sponge.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Usually however one organ makes what is called a reducing agent, with the other one making an oxidizing agent. The latter is what you find in, what you humans call bleach but way, way more aggressive, for the former, well you don’t see it too commonly in a human’s household but it’s basically the opposite of an oxidizing agent. When they then meet somewhere in our throat, they react violently creating the flames you saw the other day” </em> </strong>
</p><p>“Wow that is so awesome, I wish I could do that too…”</p><p>I gaze off into the distance just thinking about all the myths of fierce fire breathing dragons and how I used to wish I could be one too.</p><p>The dragoness watches me intently for a while. <strong><em>“I see you had high aspirations as a child didn’t you.”</em></strong></p><p>Her voice echoing through my head makes me snap out of my trance.</p><p>“Heh well I used to dream a lot as a kid.”<br/>This time it doesn’t bother me nearly as much that she read my thoughts, I feel like I’m getting used to always having someone look into my mind.</p><p>“You said you can use magic, what can you do with other then just protecting yourself?”<br/><strong><em>“Oh everything really, I even used some on you. Remember when I swiped you into the tree? When you woke up you didn’t feel too bad, some bruises and some such. Well in reality I accidentally broke 4 of your ribs and shattered your shoulder and upper arm, while you were out cold, I worked some magic to fix your bones.”<br/></em></strong>“Really? It did feel like I broke at least something, but I didn’t suspect that it was that bad. Thank you so much, how can I ever repay you?”<br/>Skaftá chuckles. <strong><em>“No need to repay me Arya, in the end I didn’t plan on breaking your bones so it was the least I could have done. The other time I used magic on you was after you fell asleep two days ago, remember how you had skewered yourself on my teeth? Those wounds were gone the next day as well.”</em></strong></p><p>“Jesus, I had already forgotten about those…”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“As for non-healing magic I can also use it to do anything I please, like making you unable to move, igniting things if I can’t breathe fire, increasing my own strength if needed and many more.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“It sounds like there is nothing you can’t do with that power.”<br/><strong><em>“There is a caveat as there is with everything. Using magic draws from an energy pool and once that is empty, I have to use my bodies’ energy to maintain a spell and if that runs out, well I die. The pool of magic energy refills slowly over time by consuming excess energy in my body, so in the end all magic I use is cast with my body’s energy one way or another. Basically, all spells that would require more energy than I have are off limits”</em></strong></p><p>“That makes magic seem a lot scarier now, it appears to be very easy to kill yourself with it, just one wrongly formulated spell and you die.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“It’s not as bad as it seems, you can always cut the flow of energy, stronger spells might be a bit harder to cut off but generally speaking it’s possible, think of it as trying to hold a faucet shut. The stronger the spell the further you open the faucet.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I contemplate her words for a while. “You are right that’s not too horrible, can only dragons use magic?”<br/><strong><em>“No not at all, everyone can use magic, the problem is that most have lost the connection to the magic force itself, adding to that is the fact that the remnant of magic in most living things bodies is so tiny that even the tiniest spell overloads it.”</em></strong></p><p>“Oh, so I could never use magic? And didn’t you mention you could use your bodies energy to cast spells too?”<br/><strong><em>“Hmm no you could learn to use magic I think, I’m not too sure on the exact details of how magic energy works but it seems to be very similar to normal energy. Which means it tries to spread out, so since I have a lot of it, and you have basically none it should slowly trickle from my body to yours. You’ll likely not notice any change for a while though, it doesn’t transfer quickly at all. For the second part, there is a certain “deposit” needed to start casting a spell if you don’t have that much magic energy then you can’t cast that spell.”</em></strong></p><p>My eyes sparkle with excitement. “Awesome! So, I just need to be patient and then I can do some things with magic? Like make a mini fire, levitate pebbles and whatnot?”</p><p>She giggles. <strong><em>“I love seeing your childish excitement, you still have so much joy in you. Yes, it’ll take years potentially but eventually you’ll be able to do it.”</em></strong></p><p>I jump up in excitement, or at least I try as I am still wrapped by her tail. “I honestly can’t wait, it’s one of the things I always wanted to do as a kid.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Hehe you humans are adorable. Give it some time.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“Does that also mean you constantly radiate magic energy into your surroundings and eventually run out?”<br/><strong><em>“Not really, only living beings can host magic energy and there is a limit to it. So currently I am only losing energy to you.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly. “I’m so excited, honestly I don’t even want to leave your side anymore, I just want to stay with you guys forever. This is so much better than anything I ever had. I’ll also try my best to be helpful.”</p><p>Skaftá moves her head closer to me and gives me a long loving lick across the face, I instinctively wipe her saliva off with my left forearm.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>” Good to hear, not that I would have let you leave anyways.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Giggling, I snuggle against her head. “I don’t know why but I already feel at home even though I felt like I was going to get killed not that long ago.”</p><p>She returns my snuggle with an affectionate nuzzle. <strong><em>“Don’t speak too soon sweetie, you’ve only been here for some 24 hours. Also, I can tell there is one more question that keeps bugging you, spit it out.”<br/></em></strong>I blush and try to hide under her tail. “Hehe erm…”<br/><strong><em>“Come on, I won’t judge, out with it.” </em></strong>She unwraps her tail far enough to uncover my face and stares me down.</p><p>“W-well…” I nervously fidget my fingers. “I was wondering how you dragons reproduce…”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“There we go, anyways female dragons can only ever be fertile once in their lifetime, we do get to decide when though. Males may father offspring multiple times though it rarely if ever happens, outside of that we procreate like any other animal would.”</em> </strong>
</p><p> “Right…” My face turns all sorts of beet red. “…that answers that.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Don’t worry Arya, if you have any more questions just ask, no matter the subject.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I take a minute to shake the embarrassment and actually think about any further questions.</p><p>“I got nothing for the moment, thank you for answering all my questions so patiently. Do you have any for me?”<br/><strong><em>“Hmm yes actually, what made you stray so far from any civilization? I found you some 30odd kilometres away from the nearest settlement.”<br/></em></strong>“Oh that… I basically got fed up with society and decided to quit. Either living in the city would make me kill myself or I’d die out here in the wilderness, in the end I decided to go on one probably last adventure. Then I somehow ended up here, funny isn’t it.”</p><p>She shakes her head lightly. <strong><em>“You make some weird decisions Arya, not that I mind.”</em></strong></p><p>Smiling weakly, I sigh. “It’s probably the only good decision I ever made, otherwise I might just be dangling off of some bridge by now.”<br/><strong><em>“No need to worry about what could be now, we’ll take care of you little one. Your past doesn’t matter to us and we will accept you the way you are.”</em></strong></p><p>Suddenly I feel tears well up in my eyes, they aren’t tears of sadness or joy, and they feel empty yet so relieving. Skaftá quickly unwraps her tail and nuzzles the side of her head against me, I gently put my hands onto her scaly head and hold on tight, my head resting just below her eye. Then the tears just start flowing, streaming down my cheeks like miniature waterfalls. As the tears flow out of me, I don’t feel any sadness I don’t even know why I’m actually crying but it feels so alleviating to get those tears out. While I cry, I can feel her tail slowly wrapping around me again with the tip slowly making its way up my body until it reaches my face, she gently wipes the tears of my cheek.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“There, there let it all out.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>The tears keep flowing and between sobs I manage to say, “Thank you.” I almost get cut off by the next sob shaking my body.</p><p>After what felt like an eternity I finally calm down, my tears dry and the sobs turn into slight whimpers, I step back a little and wipe the tears that stuck to her off with my forearm.</p><p><strong><em>“Got it all out? Are you feeling better?”</em></strong> I nod quickly, then proceed to wipe some lingering tears from my eyes.</p><p>“I don’t know where that came from, but it just overwhelmed me all the sudden.”<br/><strong><em>“It’s alright those things happen little one.”</em></strong></p><p>Before we can continue talking the ground shakes slightly almost as if a heavy truck was passing by closely. <strong><em>“Ah my husband is home.”</em></strong><br/>She removes her head from under her wings and turns to someone standing to her right, presumably in the caves entrance. I listen closely for any noise but nothing just the sound of my own breath and heartbeat. Trying to get a better look at what’s happening I try to take a step forward but Skaftá holds me in place with her tail.</p><p>Nothing happens for a little while until she lifts me off the floor and out from under her wing.</p><p>The evening sun shining into the cave blinds me for a short moment I can only make out a big black shape blocking a part of the light. Once my eyes got used to the light, I realize that the black dragon I kicked in the face yesterday is standing there with its head slightly lowered, staring at me.</p><p>Awkwardly trying to wave with my arms pinned to my side, I try not to remember how this turned out earlier.</p><p><strong><em>“Well hello there you tiny thing, no fighting back today now is there?”</em></strong> A voice quite a bit deeper than Skaftás shakes my consciousness, it sounds a little smug.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey, no reason to be mean, it’s not like you couldn’t have seen that one coming, now could you?” </em></strong>Skaftás voice now echoes through my head, she sounds annoyed almost angry.</p><p>Scáthán looks over at her and grumbles, they both stare each other down for a solid minute, then he looks back over at me.</p><p><strong><em>“It seems my wife decided that we are keeping you, I hope you at least taste goo- “</em></strong>Before he can finish his sentence his head gets smacked into the ground by Skaftás right front paw, she growls and snarls at him and for some reason I can feel her anger radiating into my mind.</p><p><strong><em>“WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU? DO YOU NOT HAVE ANY COMMON DECENCY? BE NICE TO HER.” </em></strong>Her voice is so loud it makes me feel like my head might just shatter, a tremendous anger resonates in her voice.</p><p>Scáthán eeps and tries to move his head but it’s pinned to the ground. He struggles for a little while but then resigns to his fate and just drops flat onto the ground.</p><p>After a while Skaftá lets him go, he keeps lying on the floor looking utterly defeated.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m sorry for trying to attack you yesterday and being mean to you, I should have been gentler with you…” </em></strong>His voice sounds meek and deflated now, all smugness is gone from it.</p><p>Skaftá shoots him a glare. <strong><em>“And I’m glad to have you around.”</em></strong></p><p>She nods and grunts affirmatively <strong><em>“Was it that hard? Did it hurt saying sorry and being nice?”</em></strong></p><p>He shakes his head and slowly gets up. <strong><em>“Sorry for that, my husband can be a bit immature at times. He doesn’t mean to be, he just needs a stern reminder every now and then.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“Stern…” </em>I laugh a little internally. <em>“If that is a little stern, then I don’t want to see very stern.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“It’s not pretty I tell you.”</em></strong> Scáthán is now speaking to me again, he sounds a lot more collected and normal now.</p><p>“It’s alright, no one got hurt in the end and I thought it was my fault until now anyways.”<br/> Scáthán nods slowly. <strong><em>“I really should have paid closer attention to your mind yesterday and not have gotten angry when you lashed out. It must have been a very scary situation for you to be in.”</em></strong></p><p>I lightly tug on Skaftás tail signalling her to let me go. She proceeds to carefully place me on the ground and unravel her tail. Slowly stepping closer to Scáthán I reach out to touch him, he lowers his head far enough for me to reach it. As I reach up to pet him Skaftá is staring a hole into my back, watching me and her husband like a hawk.</p><p>He holds still and just lets me rub his snout, after a while he visibly relaxes and grumbles contently.</p><p><strong><em>“I do have to admit this is very nice.”</em></strong>  He nuzzles his head against my head and almost pushes me to the ground.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Oops sorry, didn’t mean to. I do agree we should very much keep you around.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Skaftá nods happily. <strong><em>“Did you remember to bring everything I told you to?”</em></strong></p><p><strong><em>“Duh obviously.”</em></strong> He moves a large cardboard moving box into mine and her field of view.</p><p><strong><em>“Here’s something for you to get decent and keep yourself warm at night.”</em></strong> He pushes the box over to me with his left front paw. I get back up and carefully open the box, on top I see a bunch of women’s clothes, from socks to bras, all seemingly new or barely worn at most, neatly folded and packed away.</p><p>Digging a little deeper I discover a blanket and a winter coat as well as some female hygiene products. I look at him in disbelief. “Where did you get all of this from? And how and why and so many questions…”</p><p>Scáthán looks rather proud of himself and then proclaims. <strong><em>“Well even though I am huge, I can still use magic to become invisible to the human eye, as for how I managed to pack this box. Well magic is the answer yet again.”</em></strong> The clothes I had put to my side begin to levitate and then float back into the box still folded neatly. <strong><em>“And how I knew what you needed? My wife told what she knew from reading your thoughts and the rest I figured out by reading some other humans’ memories.”</em></strong> I am gobsmacked and just stare at the two of them.</p><p>Eventually I regain my speech. “T-thank you so much, I-I just have no words to express how thankful I am for what you two did for me.”</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry little one, it’s the least we could do.” </em></strong>Skaftá speaks to me softly.</p><p>Out of the pile of clothes that lie within the box I pick a shirt, jeans and a pair of socks and quickly slip them on, it feels quite nice to have some new clothing on me for once.</p><p><strong><em>“I also organized some food for the two of you, however the firewood was just too many things for me to carry but I’ll be on my way to grab some now.”</em></strong> With that Scáthán turns around and runs out of the caves entrance, then jumps off the side of the mountain and disappears from my sight.</p><p>I still stand there a little confused as to what I just witnessed, then Skaftá walks past me towards something that Scáthán had hidden previously. It’s the carcasses of two cows, at first glance there is no obvious reason for their death but then again, I am dealing with dragons here so who knows.</p><p>She grabs one with her maw, swiftly lifts it off the ground like I would a piece of chicken off a plate, turns it until most of the cow is between her jaws and then bites down.</p><p>A cacophony of shattering bones, snapping tendons and tearing flesh echoes through the cave, I cover my ears and feel my gut twist in disgust. A second later I hear the dull sound of whatever wasn’t between her jaws hit the floor.</p><p>As she chews, the noise of it gets a lot more bearable, I finally convince myself to look up again and just as her head is in my view again, she swallows what must by now be a slurry of organs, muscles and bones be in quick gulp.</p><p>I shiver at the thought that the same jaws that had just turned an entire adult cow into mush within ten seconds had been carrying my fragile body over land and through air just about a day ago.</p><p>She lowers her head again to help herself to the second cow, I immediately turn away again cover my ears a best as I can. The sounds still manage to make it to my eardrums and again my gut twists and a cold chill runs down my spine, this time I wait until I hear her swallow to look up again.</p><p>Skaftá licks her jaws clean and then looks over to me, the look of disgust and fear on my face must have been obvious. <strong><em>“Oh, sorry Arya, I didn’t mean to scare you like that. Don’t worry though I’ll make sure to keep you safe and sound.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly not entirely convinced that I won’t end up getting murdered by accident but at least I won’t feel much I tell myself. <strong><em>“Yeah that’s a bonus isn’t it, if a dragon catches you won’t feel much pain.”</em></strong> “Very reassuring, very.” I whisper sarcastically.</p><p>Looking down I see that all that remains of the two cows is a tail, half of their front legs and most of their hind legs.</p><p>She then lowers her head once again to pick up one of the hind legs, it quickly disappears in her mouth and a split second later I can hear her swallow it already</p><p>“Did you just eat that without even bothering to chew?”</p><p>She turns her head slightly to look over at me, then nods slowly before turning her attention back to the leftovers.</p><p>Half a minute later only one of the hind legs remains, she picks it up and carries it over to me, leaving a trail of blood on the floor in the process.</p><p><strong><em>“I figured you would need some food too, so I saved this one.”</em></strong> She plops the leg down in front of me. “T-thank you.” I stare at this disembodied cow leg that was just presented to me as my dinner in disbelief. <strong><em>“Don’t worry you won’t have to eat it raw. My husband should be back soon with some firewood.” </em></strong>Nodding slowly, I attempt to pick up my dinner to figure out how I would even go about making it edible, I do manage to get the leg off the ground but nearly cover myself in blood while doing so, thus I decide to just leave it be and wait for Scáthán to return.</p><p>A couple of minutes pass and I can feel an all too familiar shake in the ground, looking over to my left I see that he had just landed in the entrance of the cave. In his mouth he carries a rather dead looking tree, it’s been stripped of its bark and branches and appears to be very dried out. He walks up to me and Skaftá, then puts down the tree and places both of his paws on one end of the approximately 50-foot-long tree. He then digs his teeth into the end of the other half, next he seemingly effortlessly snaps it in half by lifting his head while pressing down with his paws. Splinters fly everywhere and I hide my face with my arms. Scáthán chucks the half in his mouth off to the side where it crashes into the caves wall with a loud bang, afterwards he proceeds to repeat this procedure two more times. Now that he was left with only eighths of the tree upper and thus thinner half of the tree and neatly arranges them into a campfire. I am astounded by just how much sensitivity he has in his claws. Once he is done arranging the wood, he breathes in deeply and as he exhales an about 3 feet long flame engulfs the remains of the tree. He keeps the flame alive for about a dozen seconds before shutting his mouth and thus extinguishing the fire coming from within him, by now the wood had long caught on fire itself and keeps burning with the occasional crack and pop from water evaporating and cracking the wood.</p><p>I watch the fire with amazement at how quickly and effortlessly he just built and lit it, after a little while I look over at my dinner and begin to ponder how to cook it without burning it.</p><p><strong><em>“Give me a second I think I know something.”</em></strong> His voice almost makes me jump as it suddenly booms through my head. Looking up I see him walk over to a largeish rock lying at the opposite wall of the cave. He lowers his head and stares at the rock for a few seconds, I think I can see a light yellow glow but it’s too dim to be sure, then two sharp cracking noises echo through the cave, he pushes the top third of the rock to the side with one paw revealing a perfectly smooth cut through the stone, next he picks up an approximately one or two inch thick slice of the stone and carries it over to the fire where he gently puts it onto the burning wood a little off to the side.</p><p>I stare at the stone slice then at him and back at the stone. “Did you just…snap this rock in half by staring at it?”</p><p><strong><em>“Not exactly I did use some magic to aid me.”</em></strong> He smirks at me. <strong><em>“What are you waiting for make yourself some dinner.” </em></strong>He takes a step back and lies down.</p><p>After I dragged the cows’ leg over to the fire, I look at it and ponder how to cut it into chunks that I could actually try and eat. All the sudden Scáthán head appears next to me. <strong><em>“Need some help with that?”</em></strong> He cocks his head into the direction of my dinner. “Err… yes please?” He nods and smiles.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I see you are struggling with the size of it, do you only want the upper half?” </em> </strong>
</p><p>Nodding I watch him closely as he quickly bites off the lower half of the leg and swallows it immediately.</p><p><strong><em>“I assume you’ll now need me to turn this into smaller pieces?” </em></strong>This time he doesn’t even wait for me to nod and just uses his claws to cut the meat off the bone and then slices it into conveniently sized chunks that he places with the fur on the ground to keep the meat itself clean. Once he is done, he presents me over a dozen bits of meat placed next to me.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Is this alright for you? Anything else I can do for you? Oh, I also made the stone slice a bit concave to keep the meat juices from running off it and the meat from burning.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“Yes and no thank you I think I’ll be alright from now on. You really think of everything do you?”</p><p>A happy smile appears on his face, he appears to be rather proud of himself. <strong><em>“Well I try.”</em></strong></p><p>I carefully place one piece of meat on the stone, it immediately begins sizzling as it touches the rock. I watch it for a minute or two and quickly turn it on its side, I repeat this a couple more times until it’s all done and slightly brown on the outside. I pick the first piece off the makeshift pan and drop the second piece in, then I take a first bite out of my freshly fried piece.</p><p>It tastes like the greatest thing I had ever eaten, previously I had not eaten meat mostly because I was dumpster diving for my food, and I didn’t want to catch any funny diseases but now I had finally gotten myself some fresh meat and I was all over it. Quickly I devour the piece I have and then get to sit and wait while the second piece is frying, as I wait my stomach makes it known that it wants more rather loudly.</p><p><strong><em>“Someone seems to be rather hungry…”</em></strong> Skaftá had been watching me the entire time and was smiling at me. <strong><em>“Good to see that you are enjoying it.”</em></strong> I quickly nod and then turn my attention to the second piece as it is mere moments form being done. The second piece gets devoured just as quickly as the first one, time flies as I quickly eat my way through over a dozen pieces, the fire had grown smaller by now and frying each piece took a lot longer, but I also couldn’t eat nearly as fast.</p><p>Eventually I feel like I am about to burst from all the meat I had just eaten, the flames had died completely and only embers remained. I throw the leftover meat, another handful or so of pieces, onto the stone and just let them sit there as they slowly cook in the build-up of juices that had collected in the centre of the stone. After slowly getting up I stagger over to the nest, Skaftá makes some space for me to lie down and as I kneel down to get myself comfortable, I feel her tail quickly wrap around me acting much like a blanket and mattress at the same time. The comfy warmth that her tail emits quickly soaks through my body making me feel safe and comfortable like never before. She rests her head next to my body with her eyes being right next to my head, I wiggle my arms free and stick them through the coils of her tail to gently hug her head and in turn she moves her head a little closer until I am snugly squished between the side of her body and her head.</p><p>A warm and happy smile spreads across my face and my eyes grow increasingly heavy with every passing second, I want to stay awake longer to enjoy her loving embrace a little more but soon I lose this futile battle and fall asleep.</p><p>Minutes later I find myself in the land of dreams already. It’s one of those nights where my dream begins with me falling through endless darkness. I can’t even see my own body, though I can still feel the air blow against me as I fall.</p><p>Those dreams were so common for me I wasn’t afraid of them anymore, so I just wait for me to inevitably hit something as I always did.</p><p>Just like usual it takes me what feels like several hours but eventually I land in seemingly infinitely deep, hot water. While I can’t consciously move my arms or legs my body simply floats to the top again where I drift along the surface facing upwards, staring into the empty void above.</p><p>Interestingly I never heard any splash when I hit the water, nor did I hear the sound of bubbles rising to the surface or the sound of waves, hell I couldn’t even see any of them. Yet I could feel that the air is heavy with steam, breathing feels like exercising.</p><p>Once the ripples of my impact die down the water becomes perfectly still, not a single wave disrupts the quiet. The warmth of the water feels so comforting I quickly become sleepy but find myself unable to sleep. Instead of sleeping I begin to daydream, my thoughts wandering here and there, focusing on nothing in particular. Soon the heat from the water makes me feel dizzy, I lift one hand to feel my forehead and it’s hot as if I have a fever. When I drop my hand back into the water, feeling too weak to hold it up any longer, I notice that the viscosity is off, it’s too thick to be just water but not by much. At first, I’m much more surprised by my sudden ability to move myself, as if I was paralyzed before and snapped out of it. Then I wonder what this hot, slightly viscous and odourless liquid could be.</p><p>I let it run through my fingers, it feels almost like slime but diluted with water. Carefully, I let some drip onto my tongue. The instant it makes contact I recoil, my face scrunched up into a scowl. It tastes sour, so incredibly sour. Nothing I ever tasted in my life came close to it, I imagine that this is what battery acid might taste like. It can’t be acid though as I haven’t noticed it burning even after soaking in it for what must be thirty odd minutes. I keep bobbing around on the surface of this weird ocean while I ponder what it could be made off.</p><p>After a while I lift my arm again to check my forehead since the headache had gotten so much worse, I could barely thing straight anymore. As the liquid drips off I feel something…different? A sensation that I can only describe as a chunk of gelatine sliding over my skin, disintegrating and dropping off. I carefully put my other hand on my forearm, it feels sticky and slimy, it reminds me of the time I cleaned Scátháns mouth, my arms felt almost exactly like it except less sticky.</p><p>Even more confused now, I rub my hand up and down. All of my arm feels like it and whenever I move my hand, I can feel it pushing aside a layer of jelly like stuff. I speed up my scrubbing motions, every time more and more of this gunk comes off. Eventually though I feel something hard and smooth come through, I keep scrubbing and soon I find two long straight things running all the way from my hand to my elbow, one significantly thicker and one rather thin. Approaching my elbow, they cross once, while towards the hand they drift apart far enough for me to stick my fingers in between them. Suddenly I realize what I was feeling, my own bones.</p><p>What I was scrubbing off seconds ago was my very own flesh and now I had laid open my own skeleton.</p><p>My heart sinks, this was acid all along and it just took long to begin acting.</p><p>In a fit of panic, I try to swim, I don’t know where, nor do I know if there even is anything in this dark abyss is.</p><p>As I swim, I can feel more and more of my flesh melt off my arms and legs, soon enough muscles came off that I can’t continue swimming. Thus, I’m forced to just lie there, slowly drifting on, as the rest of my flesh slowly melts away like ice cream on a hot summer day.</p><p>Interestingly, it doesn’t hurt, I don’t even feel anything, but the sensation of my body turned jelly slowly breaking off and floating away as it slowly dissolves.</p><p>It doesn’t take long for almost all of me to disappear, only my skeleton and my head remain intact. Never in my life have I felt such immense fear and when, finally, the skin off my head and face dissolved I black out.</p><p>The night flies by like never before, luckily without any more dreams and as the sun rises, I am still fast asleep, Skaftá wakes soon after but stays completely still as to not wake me and instead just watches me sleep.</p><p>It won’t be for another few hours until I finally do wake up, as I open my eyes I stare right into her vast, beautiful eye and she stares right back.</p><p>We keep gazing at one another for a little before she speaks to me with a warm and gentle tone in her voice <strong><em>“Good morning little sleepyhead, it seems you had a very lovely night’s sleep.”</em></strong></p><p>I wordlessly nod and yawn widely, she smiles at me then yawns as well. As she yawns, I find myself unintentionally staring into her wide-open mouth, I just now realize just how huge it is and how dangerous her dozens of teeth look. The longest come in at nearly 10 inches in length with many more in the 5-7 inches range, almost every single one is shaped much like a dagger, slightly curved inwards and razor sharp on both edges, when she has her mouth wide open, I could probably just walk into it and not even have to worry about hitting my head on her upper jaw. She quickly notices me staring and after she had closed her mouth and I kept staring asks me <strong><em>“Something bothering you little one?”</em></strong> I snap out of my trance. “Oh no, I just hadn’t realized how scary your teeth look and I ended up getting slightly captivated.”</p><p>She laughs light heartedly and smiles widely. <strong><em>“You’re a strange child Arya, getting fascinated by all sorts of things.”</em></strong> Her words make me blush a little as I realize just how strange this situation is. “Heh well, everything about you is so otherworldly to me I just have to stare sometimes.”</p><p>Skaftá lightly pats my head with the tip of her tail. <strong><em>“Don’t worry stare as much as you want, it’s not like I don’t stare at you too.” </em></strong>She winks at me, then slowly unravels her tail and gently lays me on the floor.</p><p>I slowly get up and peek around her to see what Scáthán is doing but he appears to have already left to do whatever, likely hunting I assume.</p><p>“Oh, Skaftá, by the way, what was the deal with your twos mood change yesterday? Why did you react so violently when he was being a bit mean to me? How come he was all nice after I had pet him? I don’t think it was just me petting him was it?” She turns her head to me with a slightly surprised look on her face. <strong><em>“Hmm? … Oh that, yeah, I am not proud of how I reacted. You know the two of us have a permanent connection between our minds so we always know what the other one is thinking or trying to do, and I could tell he just saw you as food. I could tell he was planning of turning you into a snack soon and it just made me so angry, I was already worried enough that our hatchlings will try to eat you and that we’d have to somehow protect you, so I didn’t need him being difficult about it either.” </em></strong>She pauses for a moment and looks out of the cave into the blue noon sky. <strong><em>“I really should have been gentler with him but in that moment, I wasn’t myself and I got violent. Sadly, I have these moments occasionally where I just lash out without much provocation but at least it’s been getting better.” </em></strong>She looks back at me and I can see the sorrow and disappointment in her eyes. <strong><em>“I really wish I was better at controlling myself, I always fear that I accidentally hurt someone in a fit of anger.”</em></strong> I step closer to her and reach up to pet her neck, it’s way out of reach but she gets the hint and rests her head next to me, I then sit down next to her head and begin to lightly rub her temple. “Don’t worry too much, you try to better yourself and appear to be genuinely remorseful. Everyone has a bad day every now and then.” Skaftá murmurs in agreement. <strong><em>“Still I shouldn’t get physical… Anyways, you ask how why his behaviour changed so suddenly after you pet him. You see since I had already broken your mind at that point you were receptive to all telepathic communication, that’s also why you could hear him talk to you via telepathy. It also has some side effects like for example if you yourself decide to willingly touch a dragon after your mind has been broken the dragon immediately gets to see all your memories, it’s kind of like the brains synching up. Usually you would also see all of his memories, but I kept that channel shut intentionally to safe you the headache that comes with it.”</em></strong></p><p>“Hmmm you mean I would experience a sort of flashback in which I see all your or his memories in rapid succession?” <strong><em>“Indeed, it only works with living beings that had their mind broken previously and only upon first contact though.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly trying to make sense of what she is saying. “That also means I won’t experience that with you, anymore right? We had our first touch and at that point you… blocked? ... The channel that would let your memories flood into my consciousness?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“You got it, I did it because I was worried about how your human brain would react to such a sudden influx of 380 over years’ worth of memories. You humans have gone insane over less.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>A laugh escapes my lips. “Yes, our minds are a fickle little thing aren’t they.”</p><p>Skaftá smiles lightly in response to my laughter. <strong><em>“Well yours seems to be rather resilient though. You’ve gone through quite some hardship.”</em></strong> Sighing I rest my head on hers. “Mhm, those were some dark times that I never want to go back to.”</p><p><strong><em>“Hey, don’t be so blue about it, that all lies in the past now, the future looks a lot better doesn’t it`?” </em></strong>She lightly nudges my ribs with her tail.</p><p>The frown that had emerged on my face slowly fades and turns into a slight smile. “You’re right, there’s no use mulling over the past, there is nothing you can change about it. The only thing you can influence is the future and right now I am very happy with how it’s looking.”</p><p><strong><em>“That’s the spirit Arya.”</em></strong> Skaftá sounds almost overjoyed at my words.</p><p>“Anyway, you mentioned hatchlings a little bit ago. I don’t see any baby dragons around, so you weren’t talking about yours, or were you? …”</p><p>She suddenly moves her head a little signalling me to move aside, once I had shifted my body aside, she gets up to reveal that she’s been lying on 3 3 feet high and about 2 feet across eggs. My jaw drops in amazement at the sheer size of them. “Oh, I didn’t know you were a mom already, congratulations.” A weak smile scampers across her face. <strong><em>“Thank you, though it’s nothing to be too amazed at. In the end isn’t this what life is all about? To create the next generation of your kind?” </em></strong> She appears very nonchalant about it, almost like it’s just another thing in her life like everything else.</p><p>“You’re right I guess, but still I am amazed at how beautiful they look and how big they are…”</p><p>I stare at the three eggs admiring their beautiful shell, trying to draw a picture, in my mind, of how</p><p>the contents might look.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“If you want you can have a closer look but don’t try anything funny.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I get up and carefully step closer until I am a bit less than three feet away, I kneel down and closely look at the shell of one of the eggs. The shell at first doesn’t even look like a typical egg shell, aside from the vibrant red that falls somewhere between blood and ruby in colour, it almost looks like the egg itself is covered in scales as tiny lines run across the entire surface of it separating the shell into chunks of varying sizes, from thumbnail sized to about the size of my palm.</p><p>I look over to Skaftá, she’s been watching me like a hawk and her presence in my mind has grown a lot stronger. “They are gorgeous, tell me are these lines cracks or has it always been like that?”</p><p>She moves her head a little closer. <strong><em>“Oh, those have always been there, I assume it’s because the shell isn’t porous enough to let any air in, without these the baby dragon would suffocate.”</em></strong></p><p>I inspect the lines a little more looking for patterns or any other oddities but find nothing, then I turn my attention to the other two eggs, one is the colour of oak leaves in the summer, the other is brown like the soil in a forest. Both of the other eggs are visibly smaller than the red one but outside of the colour and size differences appear to be carbon copies of each other.</p><p><strong><em>“You can touch them if you want, I know you are dying to.” </em></strong>I side eye her feeling a bit creeped out by her reading her mind again. Slowly I reach out and very carefully rest my palm on top of the red egg, the shell feels super hard and smooth except for the little lines. A slight warmth radiates from it and then I can feel my hand starting to tingle lightly, the tingle grows stronger and stronger while also spreading out into my arm. I quickly withdraw my arm and shake my hand vigorously.</p><p>“What the hell was that?” My voice sounds freaked out almost panicked. <strong><em>“No idea Arya, I never saw anyone experience that tingle. The only possible explanation is that the baby dragon inside was doing something as it felt your touch, maybe some sort of defence mechanism.”</em></strong></p><p>The tingle slowly subsides, and I carefully run my fingers across my left palm and forearm, I feel and see no difference. “At least it doesn’t seem like it had any permanent effect.”</p><p>I step away from the eggs not wanting to risk anything worse from happening, in the end I am dealing with mini killer machines that could probably tear me to shreds almost as quickly as an adult.</p><p>Skaftá positions herself on top of the eggs again and lies down to keep them warm.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“You are in luck though. They can’t be far from hatching. Give it another handful of days or so.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Surprised I look at her then at where the eggs would be and back at her again. “Say what? It didn’t look like they were bound to hatch, then again I have no clue how an egg close to hatching would look like.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I’ve been incubating these for almost 24 months now and from what my parents told me that’s the usual timeframe you can expect an egg to take until it is ready”</em> </strong>
</p><p>A slight nervousness spreads through my body. “So, what’s going to happen to me then? You already mentioned being worried about your hatchlings viewing me as food.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Don’t worry too much, I was planning on taking you elsewhere, in the end you can very much fend for yourself and you wouldn’t be completely on your own, even when we aren’t there, we can still feel your spirit.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>The thought of being on my own again lets a cold shiver run down my spine. “That sounds horribly not fun to be honest…” <strong><em>“The other option is to potentially get eaten alive by my off springs, in the end I’ll let you decide I’m just telling you what may or may not happen.” </em></strong>Her voice is filled with concern. “How about we just wait and see how they react to me? Maybe they’ll wind up seeing me as the odd-looking sister?”</p><p>Skaftá broods over my words for a moment <strong><em>“I guess we could always take you away once they hatch, just know that you are running the risk of some serious bite wounds because even though they’re small they can still move very quickly.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly. “Well then I’ll take that risk.”</p><p>Our conversation is interrupted by my stomach rumbling. <strong><em>“Go help yourself to some food, it’ll go bad soon if you don’t eat it.” </em></strong>Quickly I get up and wander over to the remains of the fire Scáthán made yesterday. It has completely burnt down cooled off by now with only ashes and a few bits of charcoal remaining. I sit down next to it and pick the now cold and chewy meat off the stone. Albeit the texture is weird, and it tastes kind of disgusting I still scarf it down like a starved hyena. The leftovers are just enough to make me feel nice and full again, I attempt to lift the stone pan up and dump the juices off it but it’s surprisingly heavy. I struggle with it for a bit nevertheless manage to lift it up for long enough so that I can move it aside and clean it a little.</p><p><strong><em>“Granite is heavier than it looks isn’t it?” </em></strong>There is a certain amusement to be heard in Skaftás voice. “You bet.” I retort.</p><p>After I have cleaned the slice of rock, I walk around the cave a little looking for some smaller rock that I could use to make myself some tools, it takes me a while but eventually I find what I was looking for. I grab another piece of granite and sit down next to the pile of ash again. Next, I go to work trying to shape the rock into something resembling a dagger or knife, but I quickly realize that the material would wind up too thin. Instead I opt to go for the spear head shape, slowly I manage to work the rough shape into the rock. As I start working on actually forming the edge, I miss one of my swings with the granite and the rock snaps in half. Cursing internally, I get up and resume searching for another one. It takes me quite a while to find another one but this time it’s in much better shape to begin with. I sit down once again and start work all over, getting the rough shape done is much quicker now that I have a feeling for how hard I need to smash the rocks together.</p><p>Eventually I get to the stage where I can work on the edge again, I focus a lot more and the precision of my hits and put less force into them. It takes a lot longer for me to make any visible progress on my makeshift knife but most of my swings hit their mark nearly perfectly.</p><p>The hours fly by as I repeatedly smash the two rocks together, slowly but surely making the edge of one of them a lot sharper. The sun quickly approaches the horizon and then sets without me even noticing just how much time had passed. I only snap out of my stupor once Scáthán comes back from his hunt.</p><p>I put my workpiece aside and get up to greet him, he quickly makes his way into the cave.</p><p>In his mouth he is carrying what seems to be two or maybe even three deer and his tail is wrapped around another cow.</p><p>Scáthán grins happily as he drops the deer, it was three indeed, one had just been mangled quite hard when he fit it between his jaws, in front of her. <strong><em>“I see you were rather successful today.”</em></strong></p><p>She lowers her head to grab herself some dinner and I quickly close my eyes and cover my ears. It doesn’t do too much yet again. After I hear her swallow the first deer, I decide I might as well force myself to get used to the sound and sight of either of them devouring whatever poor being, they picked out to be their meal.</p><p>I take deep breath and try to prepare myself for what I’ll witness next, then open my eyes and take my hands of my ears. As I look up, I realize that she had stopped eating and that she and Scáthán had turned their heads towards me and are looking at me.</p><p><strong><em>“Is everything alright little one?” </em></strong>Scáthán asks me sounding a little concerned.</p><p>“Well mostly sort of. It’s just that the sound of you guys eating freaks me out a little.”</p><p><strong><em>“A little? With how you were cowering on the floor just now I thought you were having a breakdown.”</em></strong> Skaftá sounds quite worried too.</p><p>“I’ve always been like that. The sound of breaking bones and whatnot gives me the heebie-jeebies.”</p><p> <strong><em>“Oh, we could make you not hear those sounds if that helps.”</em></strong> Skaftás voice sounds a fair bit less worried now. “Don’t worry I’ll get used to it eventually, now go have some food it looks like you are ravenous.”</p><p><strong><em>“If you think so little one, if it gets too much just say something okay.” </em></strong>She slowly lowers her head again never fully taking her eyes off me.</p><p>As she makes quick work of the second dear, the sound of the poor things body getting shredded fill the cave yet again. Internally my gut twists and my skin crawls but I manage to keep my composure while retaining my composure. By the time she gets to the third deer I feel a lot calmer, my skin crawls a lot less than previously however my gut still twists in disgust.</p><p>Skaftá has not taken her eyes off me still and shoots me a worried look, I weakly smile and sigh.</p><p>“Just get it over with.” She nods and proceeds to grab the cow that Scáthán had by now moved in front of her as well. I force myself to watch as she consumes most of the cow and I find myself wondering just how much food she can fit into her stomach, probably more than I care to find out.</p><p>After she had swallowed the cow, she presents me with a piece she had kept for me to have for dinner. Scáthán proceeds to help my build a little fire pit again though he seems rather sluggish today and fumbles around with his pieces of wood a lot. “Is there something wrong Scáthán?”</p><p>He looks at me and frowns a little. <strong><em>“Not feeling so good today…” </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>“Well that’s what you get for eating two elks and 5 sheep and carrying all of the food for me up here. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before.”</em></strong> Skaftá scolds him light heartedly, almost jokingly.</p><p>He grumbles lightly and finishes the pile of fire wood, next he lazily breathes some flames at it, just enough to ignite the wood, then he lets himself fall over to the left. He crashes into the ground, making the ground shake, and groans. <strong><em>“I’ll just go sleep. See you tomorrow.”</em></strong></p><p>With that he closes his eyes and I can almost feel him drift off to sleep instantly.</p><p>“He must have been feeling really shitty…” I look over to him quite concerned for his health.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“No need to worry too much, he is a little glutton at times and doesn’t know his limits. He just overate and then overexerted himself. While he does feel like death warmed up right now, he’ll have slept it off by tomorrow.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I sigh and look over to him once again, he’s just lying on his side now, one wing awkwardly hanging down in front of his stomach with the other one stretched out behind him in an uncomfortable looking angle. His legs just lie on the floor lifelessly.</p><p><strong><em>“Just let him sleep for now and don’t worry, tomorrow he’ll be his chipper self again just you wait.” </em></strong>After shrugging I turn my attention back to the fire that has by now grown a lot and the wood cracks and pops just like yesterday. I warm my hands for a moment then try to lift the makeshift pan. I am quickly reminded of the fact that it’s too heavy for me, so I turn to Skaftá.</p><p>“Would you kindly?” I cock my head in the direction of the slice of rock.</p><p>She snickers and then moves the pan into the flames with her tail.</p><p>I thank her internally and grab me my dinner, she had already bitten off the lower half of the leg this time. With my knife I manage to prepare the meat rather quickly and then chuck it onto the already searing hot stone. I admire my newly crafted knife and how well it worked for a first prototype, sure it does get slippery over time and is kind of unwieldly, but it does the job.</p><p>After carefully putting my creation aside, I grab one of the slices and flip it, the heat of the fire must have been just right as it had turned gold brown. I quickly flip the other two slices too and then wait for them to be done, I check the centre one and see that it’s just about done. I quickly devour the three pieces that are done while waiting for the next batch to finish. Once I had eaten the 4<sup>th</sup> round I start to feel nice and full, I don’t bother cutting up the rest and just throw it onto the stone as well, since the fire had died down quite a bit, I add some more wood and move the stone plate a bit to the side as to not burn my leftovers.</p><p>Next, I have a stretch and make my way into the nest again. Skaftá had already made herself comfortable and was about to go to sleep but as she saw me climb over the edge of the nest, she reaches out with her tail to grab me and place me next to her side. I lightly shake my head and jokingly say: “My legs are still working fine Skaftá, no need to carry me everywhere.”</p><p><strong><em>“We’ll see how much of a say you get in that.” </em></strong>She doesn’t wrap her tail around me too much and just moves it under me as padding, then she presses her head against my body such that I end up gently squished between her side and head.</p><p>“Careful there I’m fragile.” Skaftá gives me a little more space to breathe and I snuggle against her head, then wrap my arms around her head.</p><p>As always, her embrace is surprisingly comfortable, and I find myself drifting off to sleep much sooner than I expected.</p><p>In my dreams I appear to be living a normal day of my life around the age of ten, getting up to go to school, sitting around for around six hours and then coming back home to do homework. However, on my way home I feel an odd weight on my back, I look over my shoulder to see that my backpack, in which I carried books and school supplies, disappeared. I feel my shoulders, no shoulder strap to be found. I run my hands over my shoulders and over my upper and lower back to see if I can feel the source of the weight, but all seems normal, well except for the lack of a back pack.</p><p>I stop in the middle of the sidewalk. Did I forget it at school? Where did this odd weight come from? It doesn’t feel anything like a backpack. Is this just someone playing a prank on me?</p><p>Looking around I only see some adults minding their own business, moving the lawn, cleaning windows and the like. None of them gave me the impression that they’d prank me. Instead I look for something reflective, like a puddle, window or a shiny new car because I couldn’t feel anything with my hands when I check.</p><p>Luckily, I’m on my way through a fancy neighbourhood so finding a new fancy shiny car is not difficult, I quickly jog over to it and stand next to it, staring intently at my reflection in its fender. While it’s not a good mirror with how bent it is, it’s good enough for me to see what’s on my back. For a moment it feels like time froze, my mind stops, my breathing stops and even my heart stutters for a moment. What I see in this distorted image of myself is a pair of wings sprouting out of my shoulder blades. I narrow my eyes and reach around to feel them. I was sure I checked my shoulder blades previously and didn’t feel anything but this time when I close my hands around the thin bones lining my wings, I can definitely feel something. My heart races both in excitement and anxiety, I wasn’t sure what to make of it yet. Gently, I tug on it and indeed I can feel something, it feels strange at first because my brain isn’t used to getting sensory input from this part of my body, but it feels undeniably real. With furrowed eyebrows, I try to move them. It feels so silly, but I can’t control the urge, so I stand there in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at the ground, not moving at all, at first at least.</p><p>Soon I my brain figures out how to signal my wings to move, my first reaction is to try and spread them. They are so much larger than anticipated, so I unintentionally slap the car next to me with them. The clunking sound scares the daylight out of me, and I jump backwards. When I realize what I happened I quickly look around to see if anyone noticed but if anything, the adults seem to be ignoring me and kids appear strangely absent. I look back at the car to see if I damaged it but luckily, I can’t find any trace of the impact. The worry that was building just seconds ago immediately goes away again and the only thing occupying my mind is the fact that I have wings now. I can’t spread them here, the sidewalk is too small, besides there are people around, what would they think of me? Instead I run to the closest park, which in this neighbourhood wasn’t far and since school ended early no one was around yet. I make my way to the playground, the largest area clear of any obstructions I can immediately come up with. Between the swing and the seesaw, I stop and try to spread my wings again. Now it feels just as natural as lifting my arms to me, it feels just like stretching my arms, except that they are attached to my back.</p><p>I see the tip of my wings appear in my peripheral vision, they are all skin, no feathers or scales to be seen. My fleshy wings look kind of freaky, like something out of a horror movie but I didn’t care, I had wings god damn it. This is the most awesome thing that ever happened to me.</p><p>With them stretched out as far as I can they span just under ten feet (3m) and a sudden gust of wind nearly knocks me off balance. I stumble forward and catch myself on the centre post of the seesaw. Now to figure out how to fly.</p><p>As carefully as I can I try to move them and again it feels just like moving my arms around, though the wind does make some movements more difficult. After a while of struggling I manage to grasp the concept of moving them in a way that would generate lift. As a test I hop up while swinging my wings downwards and much to my surprise I fling myself up another three feet (1m) on top of my one-foot jump (30cm). The unexpected height gain makes me lose control and land on all fours with my wings crashing into the swings behind me. My wrists hurt from absorbing a good part of the shock, but I ignore them, I didn’t have time to worry about them, all I wanted is to figure out how to fly. I position myself a bit further away from the playground and hop up again. This time I can keep my balance while in the air and land safely, annulling the impact by bending my knees. Even if I couldn’t figure out how to fly, just being able to jump like this already has me exhilarated.</p><p>I hop around with joy, flapping my wings a little to gain some extra height, minutes later it feels just like walking to me. While this is really nice, what I really wanted to try was flying and this isn’t it, so I stop and take a deep breath. This is going to hurt, I’m going to fail but it doesn’t matter if I break my bones, I just want to try.</p><p>I jump as high as my legs let me, then swing my wings down as hard as I can. This catapults me to just shy of seven feet (2,1m) off the ground. Just as my wings reach the lowest, they would go I begin losing height rapidly. I try to pull my wings up as fast as I can before swinging them downwards again, but I already lost so much height I just barely reach seven feet (2,1m) again. The third time I flap my wings I accidentally move them at different speeds, resulting in me flying sideways and losing control. I fall hard from around five feet (1,5m), landing in the grass face first.</p><p>It hurts so badly. I want to cry yet I know I can’t. If they see me with my wings, they surely will try to take them away from me or keep me from using them. It takes all my ten-year-old self has but I manage to keep it together and five minutes later it’s not that bad anymore.</p><p>I slowly get up, still a little dazed from my fall and stagger to the next tree to lean on it for support. Jumping clearly wasn’t the solution to gain flight.</p><p>While I wait for the headache to go away, I try to think of other ways to become airborne. Maybe I could jump off a high place or maybe I could run and flap my wings while doing so. Maybe these wings were just too small to actually fly. No matter, I had to keep trying, I wasn’t convinced that I couldn’t fly with these things yet. Since jumping off a high place didn’t sound too enticing to me, I decided to try running next, if anything it would help me jump higher. I step onto the closest straight bit of sand path and prepare for a full sprint, luckily my muscles were already warmed up from all the jumping. A first test run proves that the wings hinder me much more than I expected, the wind coming from the front slows me down greatly. Instead I try to find a part of the park where the wind would be blowing into my back to maybe even help me run faster. After a short while of searching I find an about three hundred foot (100m) long stretch that appears perfect, it even has few trees next to it, so I don’t need to worry about getting stuck in them. I take a deep breath and then sprint as fast as I can, a gust of wind blows into my wings pushing me forward even faster. I almost lose my balance because of it. After just about a hundred feet (33m) I flap my wings for the first time, my steps suddenly grow incredibly long as I lift myself up in the air, the wind pushes me forward even faster, so that my feet can just barely keep up when I make contact again. With my feet touching the ground less and less I keep gaining height. At the two hundred-foot (66m) mark I’m already hopping over seven feet (2,1m) up towards the sky. I flap my wings with increasing frequency and after two more steps I manage to stay afloat, gaining height with every swing, albeit slowly. The sand below me gets replaced by grass as I fly past the turn that marked the end of my runway, I’m basically flying now but need to gain more altitude to not hit the trees another three hundred feet (100m) away from me. Fortunately, the trees in this park are all fairly small which allows me to just barely make it past the tops of them.</p><p>I am properly flying now, and it feels even more awesome than I imagined. I feel weightless and free. I can go wherever I want. Nothing keeps me confined to anywhere. I can go up, down, left and right whenever I please and as far as I please. Now that I am properly flying, I don’t need to worry about losing height too much anymore as well. Finally, I take a look around, while I’m only thirty odd feet (~10m) off the ground I can see much farther than I could even without trees blocking my view. The suburbs go on for miles in front of me, the buildings growing taller and taller as my gaze approaches the city, skyscrapers reach for the clouds like hands reaching for apples on a tree. To my left and right the family homes crammed next to one take up every available inch of space, only when I look at the horizon can I see their density slowly decrease until they get fully replaced by a forest. Below me the park flies by at a scary pace, moments later I’m above the parking lot for the adjacent supermarket. I tilt my body to the right which makes me fly a much tighter curve than anticipated, I just barely manage to not get caught in a downward spiral.</p><p>Even though it only takes me a split second to regain my sense of direction I already lose over a dozen feet of height (~4m), just barely I manage to recover from the height loss and not be forced to land. I fly along the empty street, just above the roofs of the houses, enjoying the freedom and weightlessness of flying. After a while I realize that I’m keeping myself confined to a rather low altitude and that I always stay above the road. It’s just silly, I have an entire sky to explore and up here there are no traffic laws. No cars to watch out for, only airplanes but the next airport is dozens of miles away still. Oh, so carefully I tilt my body to the left and try my hardest to not lose control this time. It kind of works out. I still overshoot but not that it matters. I flap my wings as hard as I can to gain more and more height, soon the buildings beneath me look like doll houses and while I can’t fly particularly fast, it’s enough to take a look at the city and the surrounding area.</p><p>Eventually I fly over my home, I didn’t want to return yet, but I probably should. I already took so much longer to get home and I didn’t want to deal with my father when he gets annoyed at me again. With steady wings, I slowly spiral downwards and after a couple minutes land in the front yard. It takes me moment to figure out how to fold my wings so that they don’t disturb me while walking, then I head through the door and into my home. The dream slowly fades to black as I close the door behind me. The night passes without any more dreams.</p><p>In the morning I get woken up way too early by Skaftá getting up, I look up at her with tired eyes and she quickly tells me to go back to sleep as the sun isn’t even up yet. In my sleepy state I turn around go back to sleep without questioning her.</p><p>A couple hours later my body has decided that I had slept enough, and I slowly open my eyes.</p><p>Instead of the sapphire blue scales I had grown rather used to staring at when waking up, I am now greeted by obsidian black scales. After shaking the initial confusion, I turn around and unintentionally gasp a little as I lock eyes with Scáthán.</p><p><strong><em>“Do I still scare you?” </em></strong>His voice booms through my head. I take a moment to regain my composure. “No actually I just wasn’t expecting to wake up next to you.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Did you really not notice my wife leaving to go hunt and to catch some fresh air.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“Oh, did she? I must have been half asleep still.” I try to remember if I had actually been woken up previously, but I find no such memory in my brain.</p><p><strong><em>“Seems so. Anyways, she won’t be back until noon today.” </em></strong>He sounds slightly giddy for reasons I can’t make out.</p><p>“I assume that means you are on egg duty today? Anything I can possibly do to be of any use?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Yep, I’ll be stuck here for all of today. You really just need to keep me company and help me not die of boredom. I have no clue how Skaftá does this all day for weeks on end.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I giggle at the obvious misery in his voice. “You are not the type of dragon to just lie around all day, are you?” He shakes his head vigorously. <strong><em>“Not at all, I much prefer to be soaring through the sky instead of being tethered to the ground just sitting in one spot waiting for something, anything to happen.” </em></strong>A smile that quickly turns into a grin appears on my face. “Well to be fair the former does sound a lot more fun if you were to ask me.” He reciprocates my smile. <strong><em>“You do very much seem to be that type of person. Freedom is rather important to you isn’t it?” </em></strong></p><p>“Kind of I guess, I just really like being able to do my own things, whether that is on the ground or up in the skies doesn’t matter to me.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“That may just be because you have no wings, I’ll need to take you up there some time soon. It’s something else trust me. You guys have the saying “Only flying is better” for a reason.” </em> </strong>
</p><p>“Oh? How come you are so friendly to me all the sudden? What happened to trying to eat me?” I quip.</p><p><strong><em>“What makes you think I’m not trying to eat you anymore?” </em></strong>He threateningly glares at me but the silly grin on his face gives his ploy to scare me away.</p><p>“Oh no, please don’t eat me, I’m too young to die.” I pretend to be the scared princess that just got captured by the mean evil dragon.</p><p>My over exaggerated display of fear makes him crack up a little, his laughter sounds much like a growl with a stutter. The sound of his laughter quickly makes me giggle and then full on cackle.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Good one Arya, your defenceless little princess act is on point.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“Well thank you, maybe I should have pursued a career as an actor.” I wipe away a tear of joy that had gotten stuck in the side of my eye.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s probably better you didn’t otherwise you wouldn’t be here. On a more serious note, no I do very much not want to eat you anymore ever since I saw your memories. Now I understand why Skaftá decided to pick you up. You deserve better than that.” </em></strong>He slowly moves his head closer and then gently nuzzles it against my side.</p><p>“You think so?” I carefully rest my right arm on his head and gently pet him.</p><p>Scáthán nods a little. <strong><em>“That day I was so aggressive because some humans apparently think hunting is a sport and thus scared most of my prey away, which meant I had to go hungry that day and when I’m hungry I am just not myself. It’s also part of the reason why my wife reacted so violently, because when I am hungry you need to be a little rough to get through to me.”</em></strong></p><p>His voice sounds rather remorseful. “Don’t worry that’s all long forgiven and forgotten already. Everyone has a bad day sometimes.” I gently pat him and rest my head against his.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Aww stop it you are going to make me blush.” </em> </strong>
</p><p>“Can dragons even blush?” My attempts at imagining a blushing Scáthán just make me grin wider and wider.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t think so but it certainly would look funny wouldn’t it.” </em></strong>From his voice I can tell that he was watching me trying to draw a mental image of him blushing as he sounds rather amused too.</p><p><strong><em>“I see you’ve already been told quite a bit about our kind, even that telepathy is a two-way road. Do you feel like exploring just how much further you can go? My wife is leaving out quite a significant chunk.” </em></strong>I look at him with a rather intrigued look in my eyes, my expression is enough for him to continue. <strong><em>“You see, normally your human mind is very limited in what it can do, why it is like that I can’t tell you, but now that it’s been broken there is a lot more you can do. For now, it’s probably best if you don’t experiment too much on your own because it is sort of risky but as long as you got either of us around, you’ll be safe.”</em></strong></p><p>Now he has my full attention, what does he mean? As he’s clearly reading my mind, I don’t even bother to ask out loud. What are the risks, why does Skaftá keep these things secret from me?</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Slow down there little one, my wife is not telling you everything yet because she worries that you might go explore on your own and find yourself stuck outside your own body. The problem is, now that your mind has been broken, which you should really view as the chains keeping your mind attached to your body being destroyed then your mind itself being broken, you can leave your body. It’s not recommended you do that though as your body does not function too well without a mind which will result in your death.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Good lord that sounds so scary and surreal, but what does it mean to “leave” your body?</em>
</p><p>The risk of death puts a huge damper on my excitement.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Well it’s hard to explain but basically your ghost can detach from your body and explore the world while ignoring any and all barriers. Now while you are still close to your body there will always be a part of your spirit left in your body which allows it to keep the most basic functions running but once you stray too far that connection is lost, and your body essentially becomes braindead. At that point there is no returning to your body, you’ll be stuck in the ethereal world.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>A chill runs down my spine and I can feel the hairs on my arms stand up.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Now that your body is dead you also won’t be for much longer in the world of spirits, your mind can’t exist without a body so it too will soon fade into nothingness. Don’t worry too much about it, leaving your body is a very active process, you won’t accidentally end up outside of your body.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>My concern lessens a bit and I manage to relax.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“But that’s not the only thing you can do now that your mind is essentially free, as you’ve already established a telepathic link between your and my mind you should be able to see what I think and feel as well as being able to send me memories. If you look around in your mind a little you should find that my mind is also present at the edge of your consciousness, go approach it.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>At first, I struggle to follow his instructions as my thoughts are a complete mess and navigating them is near impossible but eventually, I fight my way through to the outer edges of my mind and start looking around. I notice that Skaftás mind is present too, but her presence feels a lot weaker.</p><p><strong><em>“What you are seeing there are the effects of distance on the telepathic link, the greater the distance between you two the weaker the connection gets.” </em></strong>Making a mental note of that I keep poking around until I find his presence hidden away in a dark corner.</p><p><strong><em>“Very good, sorry I made it so difficult for you, I wanted to see how well you do with exploring your own consciousness. Now come a little closer and be prepared for something unexpected to happen.” </em></strong>Without questioning it I carefully approach his presence, as I get closer, I can feel it exerting a pulling force on me, it gets stronger the closer I get and soon I find myself unable to turn back. A feeling of helplessness overwhelms me, panicked I try to get away from it but only wind up losing my grip and falling into his mind.</p><p>Everything turns white, almost as if I am standing in front of a huge light, then the light grows weaker to reveal a fast forest stretching out from under me in all directions until it disappears behind the horizon. I appear to be flying over it at a rapid pace, the trees are just zooming by.</p><p>The view keeps moving left and right, as if it is looking for something, then it zooms in on a certain part of the forest, I can’t make out any difference in that specific part, yet I feel like I am almost falling towards it. The trees rapidly come closer and closer, I brace myself for the impact, the tree branches snap as I crash through them and suddenly, I feel my fall slow down greatly. Carefully I open my eyes again to see that I am now hanging about 30 feet above the ground and beneath me lies a dead deer. The scenery fades to white again and suddenly I find myself back in my own thoughts, it seems like not even a second has passed. My eyes struggle to focus on anything but even now I can tell that the blurry mess I see is still the same cave and Scáthán still lies next to me.</p><p>“W-What was that?” I am sweating profusely and shaking.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Calm down Arya, it was just a memory you saw. Nothing is going to happen to you.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>He wraps his tail around me and looks at me worriedly. I force myself to breathe slowly to calm my heart down.</p><p>“Jesus, a warning would have helped, I thought I was going to die.” I exhale deeply and my eyes manage to focus again. He’s looking down at me with worry in his eyes.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I thought you not feeling the wind would be a dead giveaway that that wasn’t real.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Suddenly it hits me, the perspective was weirdly warped, I didn’t feel any wind, I was flying, and I had never been to any area like that how did I not realize that it wasn’t real?</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Are you okay? I’m sorry I scared you like that again. I just wanted to show you some seemingly harmless memory.” </em> </strong>
</p><p>“I’m alright, shouldn’t have overreacted like that, it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t real.” I manage to calm myself down fully and feel the tension slowly leave my body.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Okay, well now you know how entering my mind and seeing one of my memories feels like, sorry your first time wasn’t enjoyable at all.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>At first my mind jumps onto a completely different topic until I realize that it makes no sense, then I blush and giggle. “So, you mean the bit where I got pulled closer to your presence and then fell in is normal? And would I always see your memories like that? Do you see my memories like that too?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“First of all, what the hell was that train of thought about just now? Yes, the falling bit is normal and happens to me too, you’ll get used to it. I can influence how much of the memory you get to experience, for example this time I left out the feeling of the wind blowing against my scales, in the end it always varies. When I was looking at your memories, I had forced my way in, so I got to pick what I saw and what not.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“Oh, forget about that one, that’s just my mind being led astray. Interesting, so could I force my way into your mind too? And more importantly how can I show you my memories?” He gives me a sceptic look but then smiles at me again.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“You’re a curious one I like it. You could force your way in, but I recommend you try that later because it can lead to some awkward situations or worse. For the second part, if you know I’ll be joining you in your head then you can just pull any memory into your focus, if you want to leave a certain part out then focus on all other parts of the memory but that one.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“Mhmmm…” I try to find the memory of the time just before I had kicked him and he was trying to snap at me, once I find it, I fully devote my focus to it. “You could try now I think?”</p><p>His presence in my mind rapidly grows stronger until it is all encompassing. I try to stay focused on that one memory and relive it. I can feel him go through all the emotions that I had gone through at the time. I slowly let the memory fade out of focus just after Skaftás mouth had shut around me, at the same time I can feel his presence retreat from my mind.</p><p><strong><em>“Well thanks for that one, I guess we can call it even now?” </em></strong>He sounds slightly peeved but also quite freaked out.</p><p>I try not to laugh but wind up snickering hard. “This is awesome, if I want, I could just make anyone feel and see what I once felt and saw?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Yes, but please spare me the details next time. I don’t need to know how exactly the inside of a dragons mouth feels like.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“It seems I got you good didn’t I.” A wide grin resides on my face.</p><p><strong><em>“If you try any funny business, I might change my mind on not eating you.” </em></strong>He seems to have gotten over it suddenly. <strong><em>“A part of you seemed to have enjoyed that short stay in my wives’ mouth at least a little bit. You just haven’t realized yet.”</em></strong></p><p>“Don’t remind me of that, I did realize but we don’t mention that <em>thing </em>anymore.” I shake my head in an attempt to get rid of the memories that are trying to resurface.</p><p><strong> <em>“Why do you worry Arya, no matter how freaky those memories or that </em> </strong> <strong>thing<em> are they can’t hurt you.”</em></strong></p><p>“I’d rather not though, they make me uncomfortable.” Finally, I manage to shake off the old monsters in my mind.</p><p>“I’d much rather you show me some more memories of yours, now that I know what I’m in for I’ll probably not freak out.”</p><p>Suddenly his presence in my mind grows rapidly, soon I find myself getting pulled into his thoughts again, this time I manage to supress the panic and just embrace his mind.</p><p>Again, I find myself nearly blinded by a bright light that then slowly fades to reveal the cave.</p><p>His view moves left and right, then down, I find myself staring at my body lying next to his left front paw. Instinctively I try to move but nothing happens.</p><p>
  <em>“Oh god this is so trippy, I’ve never seen myself like this. What’s currently going on with my body?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“As your mind has left it only the most basic functions are still operating, it’s similar to a comatose state.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I keep looking at myself for a while being completely fascinated, then Scáthán as moves his head the view shifts to the exit of the cave, the sun had already moved past it, so it probably is some time in the early afternoon. The sky completely clear, not a single cloud disrupts the firmament.</p><p>
  <em>“It’s a wonderful day isn’t it? Say how come I am seeing what you are currently seeing?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“It is, if the weather allows it tomorrow, I’ll take you up there. This is what happens when you focus on no particular memory, whoever is in your mind sees and feels what you are currently seeing and feeling, it’s very useful, possibly more useful than showing someone your memories.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Wait, how are you going to make me fly? It’s not like I have wings or something.”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“On my back you fool.”</em> </strong>
</p><p><em>“So, you are going to let me ride you like a horse?” </em>The thought of me plopping a saddle onto his back and putting a holster on him makes me laugh internally.</p><p><strong><em>“Not the way you are currently imagining but sort of.” </em></strong>His voice sounds quite amused too.</p><p><em>“I honestly can’t wait.” </em>I feel a strong giddiness spread throughout my mind. <em>“Anyway, this is really cool, it’s pretty interesting how similar we see the world, I was expecting that dragons could see all kinds of light we humans can’t but apparently not. Say could I possibly control your body when I’m like this?”</em></p><p><strong><em>“Our eyes see the same colours but the lens in our eyes is very different, we can “zoom” in on certain parts of our field of view, see?” </em></strong>It appears as if the rock he used to make the stone pan for me grows closer and closer, then slowly moves away again. My head begins to ache as it’s not used to having to comprehend this type of thing.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Neat isn’t it? As for you controlling my body, you could if I would let you.”</em> </strong>
</p><p><em>“U-huh.” </em>The headache makes it hard for me to think. <em>“Can you also not do that zooming thing again. My brain doesn’t like it. So, you still got control over what I can and can’t do? How did you do the reading my mind against my will thing then or how did your wife control my body the other day even though I was trying to prevent it.”</em></p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Ah sorry. There is something to be said about willpower, while you humans have some, we dragons can easily overcome it, this means even if you don’t want to allow us access to your thoughts, we can just force it.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Essentially, I am at your mercy no matter what, mentally and physically you can do whatever with me and I get no say in it?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“That’s how it is indeed. It shouldn’t concern you too much however, once a dragon has decided that you aren’t food it’ll generally let you be, maybe it’ll occasionally poke around your thoughts a bit to see what you are up to but otherwise as long as you don’t try anything funny, we won’t either.”</em> </strong>
</p><p><em>“That’s not too reassuring but I guess there truly is nothing to be done about it.” </em>My helplessness frustrates me, no matter where I go, I am always at the mercy of others.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Why don’t we try something else, is there anything you want to know about my past?”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Though I am still frustrated I happily accept the change of topic. <em>“I want to know how you met Skaftá!” </em>As he looks for the memory a noticeable happiness spreads throughout his mind and quickly floods mine too.</p><p>The view becomes blurry for a moment and as it clears up, I find myself looking through the eyes of a much younger Scátháns eyes. He appears to be prowling through a dense forest on the hunt for his next lunch, then he suddenly stops as his nose catches a whiff of a female dragon with no other males around.</p><p><em>“You can smell someone’s age?” </em>The scenery turns blurry as he responds. <strong><em>“I can, it’s not too hard, also please keep your questions for later, it’s hard to focus on the memory and answer you at the same time.” </em></strong>As soon as he stops talking the blurriness goes away again, I make a mental note to keep my questions to myself for now.</p><p>After sniffing around a little to make sure that the trace is real, all stealthiness  is forgotten as he rushes towards the source. Even though this took place aeons ago he already was very tall, so the dense forest poses no challenge to him, any tree that stands in his way gets knocked over.</p><p>The scent quickly grows stronger, his entire mind is focused on it, and nothing else matters right now.</p><p>Soon he jumps out of the trees onto a larger clearing, on the other side stands Skaftá, she too is only a little bit smaller than I remember her, and she has her paws holding down a half-eaten elk.</p><p>Skaftá stares at him with a look of displeasure in her eyes as he interrupted her dinner.</p><p>When he tries to approach her, she immediately begins to growl, he steps back a little again and lowers his head to signal that he has no ill intentions.</p><p>She stops growling and the look of displeasure is replaced with curiosity. He feels her attack his mind trying to gain access to his thoughts to ensure that he is indeed not a threat. He fights back as he doesn’t want to submit to her, the two of them wind up fighting with their minds for several minutes until he just barely manages to overpower her, but instead of forcing his way into her thoughts he just retreats back to his own spirit and lets her be. Next, he tries to approach her again and this time she lets him.</p><p>He slowly sneaks across the clearing with his head almost on the ground. Skaftá watches his every move and as he comes closer to her, she too lowers her head slowly. When their heads are only inches apart a light blue spark suddenly jumps the gap between them, what follows next is a flood of memories rushing into each other’s consciousness. All this happens far too quickly for me and I only manage to catch single fragments of memories, a smell here, an emotion there and a picture here, nothing that makes too much sense on its own. They both take a moment to process all the impressions and then a smile appears on both their faces. <strong><em>“Well hello there Skaftá what brings you here.” </em></strong>He smugly says. <strong><em>“How bold of you to go after someone older than you.” </em></strong>Skaftá answers sounding a little bitter over her recent defeat. <strong><em>“You do punch way above your weight class I do have to admit.” </em></strong>She seems to be slightly intrigued too.</p><p><strong><em>“Why thank you, you did quite well for yourself too I have to say.”</em></strong> Scáthán grins.</p><p><strong><em>“I guess this is yours now Scáthán.” </em></strong>She pushes the leftovers of her dinner over to him.</p><p><strong><em>“How about we share? After all you caught this one, I only happened to randomly come across you.” </em></strong>He pushes the carcass back over to her, so it lies in the middle between them.</p><p><strong><em>“How reasonable, I feel like we will get along quite well.”  </em></strong>Skaftá looks happy now, all bitterness and scepticism has disappeared.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“What a surprise, it’s not like we just shared all our memories and basically know everything about the other one now.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>The scenery slowly becomes blurry again and begins to fade. <em>“Aww but I wanted to know how it continues.”</em></p><p>I can sense Scátháns amusement as the memory turns sharp again. The two of them proceed to share the remains of the elk and then chat about this and that until the sun begins to set. After sundown Skaftá wraps her tail around his and snuggles up to him, they smile warmly at one another and then fall asleep with their heads side by side on the floor.</p><p>The memory fades to black and I find myself floating in Scátháns consciousness again. I take a moment to regain my speech</p><p><em>“That was so adorable.”</em> I feel my heart warm from how sweet the scenery was just now, and a distinct happiness had spread throughout Scátháns mind.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“It is my happiest memory, the onetime me taking a risk paid off.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“A risk taker I see? It was mentioned that you are younger than her? Just how much are we talking? 50 years, 100 years or more?”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“About 160, I’m merely 228.” </em></strong>I snort and laugh. <em>“Merely 228, good joke.”</em></p><p>
  <strong> <em>“That’s only 6 years if you compare lifespans.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Fair point, but if you do that then you two are also like 15 and 9 in human years. By that logic I am also older than both of you combined.”</em>
</p><p>We both have a good laugh over the silliness of comparing human and dragon lifespans.</p><p>
  <em>“All this talk about age made me curious, how are baby dragons like? Are they helpless like mammalian babies or are they already self-sufficient to a degree?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“How about I just show you.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>The darkness is replaced with a dim light shining through some crack in a wall ahead of him, it’s too dark to tell where the hell we are but it seems like he is doing his best to open the crack up further. As he claws away at the tiny hole, I can sense the presence of at least 3 more dragons, one mind feels quite juvenile while the other two seem to be adults.</p><p>He finally manages to break off a large piece, light floods in, now I can see that he’s still inside an egg. With freedom oh so close now he doubles his efforts to break the shell, soon the hole is big enough for him to stick his head out. A huge nest much like the one I am currently lying is surrounds him, to his left stands another baby dragon barely 5 feet in length. Looking up he locks eyes with his parents, both are even taller than he is right now, one has leaf green scales while the other sports a navy-blue coat of scales. He returns his attention to breaking free, with the hole big enough to push his paws between his front and the egg shell he manages to quickly break another huge piece off. He tries to get out of the egg but gets stuck halfway, kicking and thrashing around with his hind legs his claws eventually catch onto something side the egg and allow him to break free fully. Scáthán put so much strength into his last kick that he winds up tumbling over and landing on his back when the egg suddenly gives way. He struggles to get back onto all fours and eventually one of his parents moves in to gently nudge him into an upright position again.</p><p>He tries to shake the leftover mucus off of him but it’s far too viscous, the parent that had just helped him to get back on all fours proceeds to gently lick him clean. Scáthán squeals in displeasure as he gets cleaned mercilessly. Eventually he is deemed clean enough and the parent lets him be. He shakes himself off and suddenly gets pounced by his sibling, a playful fight ensues.</p><p>After a while the parents break up the fight by wrapping their tail around either of them and pulling them apart.</p><p>He struggles to try and break free, but his parents have an iron grip on him ultimately, he gives up and resigns to his fate. Once he and his sibling have calmed down one of his parents places a dead deer in the nest, he and his sibling immediately go to town on it once their parents let them go.</p><p>Within ten minutes he and his sibling ate just about half the deer only leaving the about half of it.</p><p>One of his parents finished up the leftovers while he and his sibling resume lazily pawing at one another before they fall asleep halfway on top of one another.</p><p>What follows next is a sped-up version of the first week of his life, it mostly consists of him eating and sleeping a lot. When he isn’t eating or sleeping, he’s usually exploring the cave around him with his parents watching closely or play fighting with his sibling. He does try to fly occasionally but it usually does get him far, if he leaves the ground at all.</p><p>Even when he ends up hurting himself by crash landing, he keeps trying, it seems like he just instinctively keeps going. Weeks pass and eventually he manages to gain height, he still ends crashing into the walls of the cave and tumbling to the ground but from then on, he makes rapid progress and another week later he almost never crash-lands anymore, another week later he has figured it all out and has near full control of himself when flying. His sibling appears to be progressing at a similar rate, maybe a bit slower but soon they end up chasing each other through the air. In the meantime, he had been trying to figure out how to breathe fire, at first one of his glands didn’t seem to work properly and he only produced tons of smoke and soot.</p><p>During approximately week three of his life he catches a minor cough and during one particularly bad fit he accidentally empties both glands at the same time which results in him suddenly hurling a ball of fiery liquids. Due to the low surface area to volume ratio it doesn’t burn properly as it soars through the air until it hits the cave wall. The orb of liquid quite literally explodes as it splatters on the rock, exposing much more of it to the surrounding air, catalysing the combustion process.</p><p>He jumps back surprised by the violent reaction, even his parents look stunned for a moment.</p><p>The memory slowly fades to black again.</p><p><em>“That was so cool, thank you for showing me.” </em>I feel giddy with excitement, soon I may get to watch all of that unfold in real time.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I could tell you were very enthralled by it, also you are bursting with questions, go hit me.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh yes, how come those memories didn’t have any smells or feelings, also I heard no one speak at all, what’s the deal with that?”<br/><strong>“It’s been forgotten, while my memory is pretty good, I do forget things. From that time of my life I only remember fractions of days and even then, they always lack sound, smells and emotions.”</strong></em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That just seems natural, I couldn’t even tell you anything about myself before the age of like 8?”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“I can tell, there are no memories predating your 6<sup>th</sup> birthday.” </em></strong>Suddenly I find myself back in my own head, looking up at Scáthán with my own eyes again. I blink a couple of times as I get used to the sudden change in perspective.</p><p><em>“Did you just put me back into my own head in an instant?”</em> He quickly nods. <strong><em>“I got nothing more to show you right now, so I figured it’ll be best to put you back to where you belong.”</em></strong></p><p>I return his nod. <em>“Alright, so what was wrong with you breathing fire, I saw you struggled with that.” </em></p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I’m not too sure myself, I think the valve keeping one of the glands shut didn’t work properly and a lump formed there that clogged it then, when I had the coughing fit it got dislodged and allowed the glands to unload.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“And I thought babies projectile vomiting is bad…”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“To be fair my parents told me later that that rarely if ever happens, they hadn’t heard of any other cases like that.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh, that’s not too horrible then but can you also do it intentionally and would you show me?”</em>
</p><p>He laughs heartily. <strong><em>“Tomorrow maybe, it’s just a tad dangerous to do it in here.”</em></strong></p><p>I have to laugh too. <em>“You’re right, you can probably spew a much larger fireball than 3-week-old you.” </em></p><p>He nods slowly. <strong><em>“Much, much bigger…” </em></strong>All of the sudden a memory floods into my mind, it’s a younger Scáthán flying away from a bigger presumably male dragon as fast as he can, he breathes in deeply and tenses his chest muscles, then turns his head and hurls a huge fireball at the other dragon. The dragon is much too close to dodge the ball of burning liquids and it hits him square in the face. His pursuer gets engulfed by a giant bright orange ball of fire and the sounds of a dragon roaring in agony can be heard over the roaring flames, then the memory fades to black.</p><p>My eyes widen. “That ball of fire must have been at least 50 feet across! Just how long ago was that?”</p><p><strong><em>“Hmm about 150 years ago I want to say.” </em></strong>I don’t even bother to try to imagine how big the fireball he could procure would be today.</p><p>
  <em>“That’s quite a while, I’m surprised that you haven’t grown more since.”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Dragons are mostly done growing by the time they turn 8, Most of the growing happens in the first 4 years though.”</em> </strong>
</p><p><em>“Wait, you’re telling me that a dragon grows from 5 feet in length to just about 100 in only 4 years?” </em>I stare at him in disbelief.</p><p><strong><em>“Yes, we grow very, very fast.” </em></strong>He nods slowly. <strong><em>“Didn’t you notice that I grew almost a foot and half in the memory I showed you earlier.”</em></strong></p><p>I quickly shake my head. <em>“I was honestly too busy being amazed at how quickly you learned to fly and how much you already knew just after hatching.”</em></p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Well my parents did “teach” me many things before I even hatched. Just because I still was inside the egg doesn’t mean that there was no telepathic connection between us.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>A lightbulb turns on in my head. <em>“I see, now the 2 years until your kind hatches make a lot more sense too, you use it to teach the little ones how to live.” </em>As I ponder this new information, I also notice how the baby dragons appear to be a lot closer to animals in behaviour, while the adults seem almost human like.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“That’s because we dragons are very adaptable, usually even adults behave a lot more like animals, like what happened to you when my wife first found you. Once we had read your memories however, we both decided to take on a human like behaviour to make you feel safer and more comfortable.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>His sudden answer to questions I had just asked myself subconsciously spooks me enough to make me jump. <em>“Could you stop that, you’ll give me a heart attack at this rate.”</em></p><p>Scáthán laughs. <strong><em>“Sorry, there are some habits I just can’t put off easily. Also, since you appear to be wondering why my sibling and I immediately got into a play fight after hatching, that’s another of those animalistic behaviours. The younglings establish a sort of pecking order, it doesn’t matter too much on this planet but maybe we used to have more offspring on our home planet and only the strongest ones survived.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“That makes an awful lot of sense indeed.” </em>The sun had already begun to set by now, I slowly get up and wander to the entrance of the cave to watch the sky slowly turn redder and redder and to wait for Skaftá to return.</p><p>As I sit there gazing off into the distance, I can feel Scáthán walk up from behind me and then lie down next to me.</p><p>We both you look off into the distance our minds wandering, yet I can still always feel his presence even when I’m looking in the opposite direction.</p><p>Eventually I feel Scátháns mind nudge mine, as I look over to him, he nods his head in the direction of some point in the sky.</p><p>I squint and try to make out what he wants me to see, at first, I spot nothing but a shade of dark blue then I notice an off-colour spot that appears to be moving towards us slowly.</p><p>“Skaftá is back?” I say out loud. An affirmative <strong><em>“Mhm.”</em></strong> rolls through my mind.</p><p>Watching the spot slowly grow bigger and more defined in shape I don’t even notice that Scáthán she’s just gliding along as she approaches the cave. While she flies towards the cave I realize just how enormous her wingspan is, I had already figured it must be huge but now that I can see her glide through the air with her wings spread to their full size it becomes obvious, they must be rivalling even the biggest aircrafts humans have ever built, at least.</p><p>Instinctively I step aside to make way for her as she gets very close to the cave entrance, Skaftá spreads her wings and angles them slightly upwards to slow down and then swiftly lands on the small plateau in front of me, a quite crunch accompanies her as her feet make contact with the ground again.</p><p>Watching her fold her wings together and tuck them neatly to her sides within a couple of seconds leaves me stunned for a moment, in the meantime she immediately heads onwards into the cave.</p><p>Skaftá just drops onto the ground next to Scáthán, all 4 of her legs stretched out, her head and tail lying flat on the floor unmoving.</p><p>I snap out of it and quickly make my way over to her, kneeling down next to her head I ask her if she’s alright.</p><p>Her mind makes contact with mine again for the first time that day, until then I hadn’t even realized that her presence from my mind was gone, I suddenly feel like every muscle in my legs arms and weirdly my back is burning like I had just spent the entire day running.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I’m good thanks for asking…”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Her thoughts feel a lot slower than they used to and she sounds exhausted.</p><p><strong><em>“Looks like someone overestimated themselves today.” </em></strong>Scáthán quips.</p><p>Skaftá glares daggers at him and growls a little. <strong><em>“I’ll drain your energy if you don’t watch your words also, who’s the one who keeps overeating and then tries to fly anyways?”</em></strong></p><p>While her voice sounds majorly pissed off her thoughts appear rather calm.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Don’t try to act tough, you never were good at it. Also, there is no need to drain my energy if I hand it over voluntarily.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I can feel both of their spirits withdraw from my head, then Scáthán tenses up for a few seconds and once he relaxes again Skaftá sighs a sigh of relief.</p><p>“What did I just witness?” My eyes dart between them and a puzzled look has spread over my face.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s one of the many things we haven’t showed you about the telepathic connection we have, you can use it to send energy to any being you have a connection with as long as they are nearby. If you try hard enough you can also use it to steal a being’s energy but that takes quite a bit more than just sending it.” </em></strong>Even though whatever Scáthán just said to me makes little sense I nod along.</p><p>
  <em>“Dragons truly are mythical beings I have to say, there is so much I don’t understand right now and may never understand.”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry we don’t really understand how this, and other things work, all we know is that it just works.” </em></strong>Skaftá sounds a lot more relaxed now and most of the pain radiating from her mind.</p><p><em>“At least I’m not alone with that then…” </em>I think to myself and sit down next to Skaftás head.</p><p><strong><em>“I see you didn’t manage to find any food today?” </em></strong>Scáthán asks.</p><p><strong><em>“Nothing I would have gotten away with, the humans are getting too paranoid about their livestock and because winter is approaching wild animals are getting scarce too, I could only get enough for me sadly.” </em></strong>Skaftá sounds utterly defeated and disappointed with herself.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry I’ll be fine for a while, it just means we have to move again sometime soon, I assume you flew so far away because you were looking for a new place to stay?” </em></strong>Scáthán sounds calm but a slight feeling of unnervedness can be felt deep down in his mind.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Yes, and I think there should be a place for us to stay about 2 days of flying away from here, I hope so at least.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>“Wait so we are just going to up and leave?” I ask rather surprised and scared.</p><p>They both turn to me and nod in unison <strong><em>“We don’t really have a choice, it’s either starve or move. I hope you are fine with that.” </em></strong>Skaftá tries to sound reassuring and smiles at me.</p><p>“I guess? It just feels so sudden and out of the blue, like you were getting food just fine yesterday.”</p><p><strong><em>“That was because we were going after the human’s livestock and now, they have become hyper vigilant and it’s really hard to not be noticed when hunting. The wild animals have fled the area, we only get the occasional herd passing through now.”</em></strong> Scáthán sighs. <strong><em>“I really hoped it would take longer but there’s nothing we can do now.”</em></strong></p><p>“But we have a few more days, right? We don’t have to leave right, away right?”</p><p><strong><em>“No little one, don’t worry, we’ll be fine for another 2 or 3 days.” </em></strong>Skaftás warm smile makes me forget all my concerns, after all with them around do I really need to worry about anything? It’s not like there is anything keeping me here or anywhere really.</p><p>Sensing my approval of the decision they both visibly relax. “Why were you two so tense just now? It’s not like I could do much even if I had a problem with it.”</p><p><strong><em>“Well you see if we were to force you to come with us it would inevitably result in you trying to run away which would not end nicely for you to say the least.”</em></strong> Scáthán says rather curtly.</p><p>“I know you can’t ever let me leave but couldn’t you just remove any memories of dragons from my brain?” I’m taken aback by his terse answer. <strong><em>“No sadly we can’t do that…”</em></strong></p><p>A lump forms in my throat as the realization sets in, at this point it’s either stay with them of die.</p><p>“Oh…Well it’s a good thing I have no reason to ever try running away then.” The feeling of despair quickly dissipates as I remind myself of how nice they have been to me so far and how this was sort of my dream life as a kid.</p><p>Skaftá and Scáthán seem to be at ease now that they can feel me fully accepting them as my new family or however you would call it.</p><p>“It’s getting quite late, could one of you help me make a fire?” I ask in an attempt to break the silence that had settled.</p><p>Scáthán gets up and swiftly as always builds me a little campfire and ignites it with one short burst of flames, in the meantime Skaftá takes over egg duty, she’s still visibly exhausted.</p><p>Once I heaved my faux pan into the fire, I quickly place my leftovers on it and watch them slowly start to sizzle. After a while I deem them warm enough and stab one with my DIY knife and start eating.</p><p>Scáthán watches me eat and I can tell he’s hungry, partially from how he’s looking at my food but mostly from the feeling of hunger flooding into my mind from his.</p><p>“I know it’s nothing for you but would you like some too?” I ask him, he looks at me, a bit confused but then realizes what I mean. <strong><em>“Oh, don’t worry about me Arya, I’ll be fine.” </em></strong>Just as he finishes his sentence his stomach grumbles loud enough that even Skaftá turns her head.</p><p>“Are you sure?” I struggle to stifle my laughter and not drop my food.</p><p>He whinges quietly and turns his head away from me. <strong><em>“Yes I am.” </em></strong></p><p>I grab one of the last 3 pieces from the fire and slowly get up with a smug grin plastered on my face.</p><p>I walk over to Scáthán and hold the meat inches away from his nose. “Are you really sure?”</p><p>He growls more aggressively this time but thanks to the telepathic connection I can tell he’s just trying to intimidate me.</p><p>As he realizes that it isn’t working, he goes quiet again, we stare each other down, unblinking, for a solid minute before he concedes. <strong><em>“Alright, alright just stop teasing me and give it to me.”</em></strong></p><p>“Catch.” I shout and toss the food in his general direction, his head moves so quickly it’s hardly a blur, then his mouth slams shut mid-air engulfing the pitifully small piece of meat. Fascinated and slightly frightened by his sudden and quick movements I sit back down at the campfire.</p><p><em>“Good thing I pulled back my arm otherwise he might have caught a piece of it…”</em> I shudder and try to shake the thoughts of dismemberment.</p><p><strong><em>“Not so smug, now are we?” </em></strong>He sounds quite amused. <strong><em>“Don’t worry even if it looks scary, I always take care to not harm you.” </em></strong></p><p>Nodding slowly, I swallow the last bit of my dinner. “I know, you just took me by surprise.”</p><p>With my tummy semi full I stretch and yawn, afterwards I get up and walk over to Scátháns side. I had originally planned to sleep next to Skaftá, but she had already fallen asleep and I didn’t want to wake her.</p><p>He quickly wraps his tail around me to form a makeshift blanket and bed and then places me right by his side before resting his head close to me just like Skaftá had been doing.</p><p>I soak up the warmth flowing from his tail into my body and quickly a heavy tiredness spreads throughout my body, it’s almost scary how quickly I tend to fall asleep around them, almost like they have me under some sort of spell.</p><p>Before I can think too much more about it, I drift off to sleep dreaming of sweet nothings.</p><p> </p><p>For the first time since I can remember, my dreams continue from where they left off last night, well kind of.</p><p>It must be the day after, or could it be a week? Certainly not more than a month as the temperature outside is nearly the same and the trees look the same too. I find myself walking around the suburbs again, the same weight on my back from last time. Why I am walking around this part of the city I don’t know, I don’t even recall seeing any of these houses, or any that look like them and the closer I look the more impossible they look. I notice upside down windows, doors without handles, cars stuck inside the garage door and disproportionately large dog huts. I remind myself that this must be a dream, the world doesn’t have to make sense here, I just happened to have wings appear on my back out of nowhere after all. Just then do I actually realize that my wings are back, or still there, I’m not sure. Again, I feel excited, I get to fly once more.</p><p>Spreading my still freaky looking wings they feel heavier than last time and the wind gently blowing into them feels much stronger than last time. Turning my head to the left it becomes obvious that they are quite a bit larger than last time, I would guess about twenty five percent.</p><p>I check the road. It is conveniently empty and should be wide enough for me to easily take flight. With slow and careful steps, my head snapping left and right, I step out from between the cars parked next to the sidewalk. I stand in the middle of the road for a short moment, there no cars coming from the front as far as I can see and there is nothing to be heard behind me, only the far-off barking of dogs and the rustling of leaves, it’s almost too quiet.</p><p>After one last deep breath I take off, sprinting as fast as I can. The black tarmac flies past me, my feet barely keeping up, it feels as though I am running on a treadmill turned up too far. I spread my wings and immediately get slowed down, nearly falling over in the process but before I can scrape open my knees, I get lifted off the ground by my wings. Taken by surprise with how easily taking off was I almost forget to flap my wings to gain height and nearly crash. As the tip of my shoes begins scraping over the asphalt I snap out of my stupor and swing my wings downwards as hard as I can, flinging myself high up into the air. Now that I put a good dozen feet between myself and the ground I relax and take in the feeling of the air rushing around me and the lack of gravity.</p><p>This time I’m not satisfied with my low altitude flight, I want to go up high, as high as my wings will carry me, it’s a dream after all, what’s the worst that could happen. I stop gliding along the road and flap my wings, rapidly gaining height until the houses look more like toys. It doesn’t take me long to surpass yesterday’s highest altitude and I have no intention of slowing my ascent any time soon. I completely lose myself in trying to rise higher and higher, all I can feel and think about is the movement of my wings and the growing ever more distant. In what feels like a couple seconds I have reached the tops of the highest skyscrapers. I can’t make out details on the ground anymore and soon the skyscrapers begin to shrink and fade too. The next stop would be the clouds, but they are much further up than I expected, even after what feels like hours, they have only inched closer and I’m starting to run out of breath.</p><p>Undeterred by my exhaustion I keep up my pace, eventually I’ll have to reach them, they can’t be infinitely far away. More hours pass, the sun begins to set and finally I can see the clouds come closer, rapidly so. Only minutes later they take up my entire field of view and I brace myself for what? I’m unsure myself but surely flying in the clouds must be different from just normal air.</p><p>Just then I disappear into the cotton candy like haze. The changes are immediate and obvious. I feel water condense on my entire body, drenching my clothes in no time and cooling me down a lot, a welcome change I find, I was beginning to feel quite hot. While the water condensing on my body is only a minor inconvenience, when I take my first breath, I immediately regret it. It feels as though I’m trying to breathe in liquid water, I cough and retch, trying to get the water out of my lungs but when I desperately suck in air afterwards, I feel water fill my lungs yet again. My chest constricts and an icy cold spreads throughout it, it stings like an icicle is forming within my lungs, coming up here was a mistake. I hold my breath and pull my wings close to me. Gravity quickly begins to pull me back down again and seconds later I plummet out of the bottom of the clouds. I spread my wings again to enter a steady glide as I take a couple deeps breaths as I take a moment to recover. Water drips out of my clothes and the wind chill remains awfully strong, by now my muscles feel sore from the cold. After a violent coughing fit, I feel like most of the water is gone from my lungs and the cold in my chest slowly begins to melt away. Seeing as I’m clearly not supposed to be up in the clouds, I let myself glide down to a more “human” altitude, approximately fifteen hundred feet (500m) above the ground. The panic from nearly drowning in the clouds fades only slowly while I idly scan the city below as I glide through the air. Eventually I find my bearings again, as long as I stayed away from the clouds, I would be safe.</p><p>With my courage returning I try to explore the limits of flying. Just how fast could I go? How tight of a loop could I fly? How tight of a turn could I make without losing control? How does terminal velocity feel like? All these questions get answered over the course of the next hour or so. The sun had set, only a slight orange shimmer illuminates the sky but since I’m flying, I don’t need to worry much about crashing into anything. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen a plane or even contrails during the entire time which is odd, but I don’t pay much attention to that detail. As I fly an ever tightening spiral upwards in an attempt to test the limits of my ability to turn in mid-air, I suddenly lose control and begin spinning around my own axis. Sky and earth fly past me in a blur of orange clouds and brown tile roofs. My struggles to somehow enter a glide or do anything to stop my fall prove fruitless. It’s not long before the ground is only seconds away and I still haven’t managed to regain control. I panic, this is the end, I’m going to die for sure.</p><p>For a split second I see the side of a house then everything turns black.</p><p>My eyes snap open and my body spasm as I snap awake and realize that it was just a dream.</p><p>It’s still dark, only the faint light of the moon shines around Scátháns body, I can barely make out anything but just the sound of his breath is enough to calm me down. I am in fact not dead. I just had a bad dream that’s all. I keep telling myself to soothe myself. After forcing myself to take a slow, drawn out breath my heart slows down, and the adrenalin subsides. I lie awake for a while thinking about the dream I just had, how it oh so perfectly described my hubris and how it lead to my early demise, humans weren’t made to fly without help and I should have been a lot more careful, then again it was a dream, did it really matter?</p><p>I come to the conclusion that I shouldn’t be bothered by it too much, dreams are just that, made up worlds our minds use to process the events of the day and looking back it kind of made sense that I would have a dream like that.</p><p>Finally, I feel sleepy again, it had been about half an hour since I awoke and if I didn’t get some more sleep soon, I would feel like shit tomorrow. Determined to fall asleep I shut my eyes and just wait for my brain to take me to the land of dreams again, fortunately I needn’t wait long. Though I don’t end up dreaming any more for the rest of the night.</p><p>The next morning comes much quicker than anticipated and I find myself gently being shook awake by Scáthán.</p><p>Sleepily I stretch and yawn. “Is it morning already?” He unwraps his tail and gently puts me down on the floor. <strong><em>“You bet and you know what? You’ll be flying today.”</em></strong></p><p>Still in my drowsy haze I take a while to realize. “Oh, right you mentioned that.” Once I sat up, I rub my eyes and then get up. “Are we leaving now?”</p><p><strong><em>“Whenever you’re ready.” </em></strong>As the fog in my brain had cleared a bit more, I can sense the giddiness emanating from him. Skaftá still appears to be fast asleep, her breath going slowly but steadily, I stretch once more and shake off the last bit of sleepiness.</p><p>“I think I’m ready.” Scáthán excitedly grins at me <strong><em>“Get on my back then.” </em></strong></p><p>I walk over to his left front paw and look up to his shoulder. “Just now do you expect me to get up there?” Even as he’s lying down his back is still almost 3 meters up in the air, I attempt to reach up with a half-hearted hop but I’m still a couple feet short of getting my hand up there. Scáthán makes some amused noises and then wraps his tail around my hip and effortlessly lifts me off the ground and up to his back. He plops me down with my legs hanging off one side and my head dangling down the other. “You could have at least tried to put me in an upright position.” I awkwardly squirm around on his upper back trying to not fall down while slowly turning around, eventually I manage to get my right leg over his back. With an exasperated sigh I make myself as comfortable as I can and look down.</p><p>I immediately recoil and wrap my arms around his neck as tightly as I can. <strong><em>“Someone’s not used to heights huh?” </em></strong>Scáthán turns his head to face me. <strong><em>“But no need to worry I’ll catch you if you do wind up falling.” </em></strong>I just nod quickly and keep my eyes on the horizon outside of the cave.</p><p>Everything around me moves as he gets up, he makes his way out of the cave and on to the edge of the mountain luckily, he stands back far enough so that I can’t look down the mountain.</p><p>For a moment he just stands still, as if he’s waiting for something, then out of nowhere he suddenly leaps forward off the side of the mountain. A scream escapes my lips as the air tugs on me, making my eyes water and nearly losing my grip on Scátháns neck. I bury my face in his neck and just pray that it’ll get better soon.</p><p>It feels like an eternity passes before he slows down, and I dare look up again.</p><p>At first all I see is blue, looking up left right or ahead nothing but a light blue sky with the occasional cloud floating around, then I turn back and see that we are only a two or three hundred meters away from the cave.</p><p>I take a deep breath in preparation to look down, slowly I turn my head, I expected to immediately feel sick or even faint but much to my surprise now that we are way up in the air it feels a lot less threatening, maybe because now there is a chance that if I fall Scáthán would be able to catch me just like Skaftá did when I slipped her grasp.</p><p><strong><em>“See it’s not that bad now is it?” </em></strong>His voice makes me jump a little and I just now realize that he has come to a full stop just hovering in place. “N-no it’s quite alright.”</p><p>He smiles at me and then starts slowly gliding forwards. I tense up again but manage to force myself to keep looking around.</p><p>Time passes and I slowly get used to flying and start trusting Scáthán to catch me should I fall. We’ve mostly been flying in a straight line so far, looking back the mountains start disappearing behind the horizon while a seemingly endless forest expands beneath us.</p><p>I take a deep breath of the fresh and cool air, then slowly sit up straight and spread my arms as if they were wings. The air rushes around my arms and pushes against my torso like an invisible hand but it doesn’t scare me or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.</p><p><strong><em>“Do you feel ready to go faster?” </em></strong>I feel my heart quicken but I nod nonetheless, if I ever want to get used to it, I need to face my fears.</p><p><strong><em>“Then hold on tight, we are going down.” </em></strong>As quick as my arms let me, I wrap them around his neck, just as I press my chest against his back he dives down by furling his wings, gravity makes us accelerate to uncanny speeds, I can hear nothing but the sound of the wind in my ears and it feels just like take-off all over again.</p><p>The forest beneath quickly comes closer and just as I thought we were going to crash Scáthán spreads his wings again making us blast over the treetops at a ridiculous pace.</p><p>The leaves of the trees turn into a blur of green making it look more like an ocean than a forest.</p><p>Every now and then has to slightly tilt his body to avoid a particularly tall tree but outside of that he just keeps gliding in a straight line with the occasional flap of his wings to keep us going.</p><p>By now cold sweat is running down my back and my heart pounds against my chest as if it wants to escape this wild ride, yet it doesn’t feel panicked, I feel serene, calm, at peace if you like to call it that, as if I belonged here. My thoughts are interrupted by Scáthán slowing down as he tilts his wings upwards, soon we lose enough velocity so that he can’t stay in the air anymore, he quickly folds his wings and then we plummet through the canopies. A barrage of cracking, snapping and rustling sounds accompanying us, with a thud his paws land on the foliage covered ground.</p><p>He turns his head to face me. <strong><em>“Are you alright back there?” </em></strong>I take a moment to form a response. “I-I think so…” Suddenly all the serenity was gone, and I felt what I think I was supposed to feel when we were up in the air, this primal panic, the need to just run but now that we were safely on the ground again there really wasn’t any point to it.</p><p>Scáthán gently wraps his tail around me and lifts me off his pack, then he delicately places me on the floor. After he let go off me, I try to take a step forward but as soon as I take one foot off the ground my other leg gives way, before I can fall to the ground Scáthán wraps his tail around me again and holds me up.</p><p>I feel dizzy, everything is spinning and every muscle in my body shakes it’s a feeling that can’t be described.</p><p>“W-what is thi-.” Even my voice quivers and the words get stuck in my throat.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry Arya, everything will be alright.” </em></strong>While his words sound reassuring, I can feel that he is worried too.</p><p>Some time passes where we both just stand still, my heavy breath and the pounding of my heart being the only sounds I can hear, eventually the shaking in my legs has receded to the point where I thing I can stand again. Scáthán loosens his tail but still keeps it loosely wrapped around me in case I fall down again. I take one slow step forward. My legs complain but don’t give way.</p><p>A sigh of relief escapes my lips. “Just what the hell was going on with me? One moment we are flying over the forest at I don’t even know how many miles an hour and I feel calm then we land and suddenly a wave of anxiety hits me out of nowhere.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I think that may have been my fault… How do I put it…? I may have influenced your thoughts up there in the air to help you keep calm, then once we landed, I stopped, and your true emotions came through.” </em> </strong>
</p><p>“Wait so you can influence how I feel? And you <em>forced </em>me to be calm kind of like a sedative?”</p><p>He nods slowly. <strong><em>“Indeed, I hope you don’t mind, it was for your own good.”</em></strong></p><p>“A warning would have been nice though, but I do have to admit, if this is what I would have felt like up there.” I point up into the sky. “Then I see why you did it. One more question though, why did I feel like I was supposed to be up there? That feeling really threw me off because it felt so out of place.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Ah that’s another quirk of the telepathic connection, if I interfere with your mind it’s not impossible that some of my feelings seep into your consciousness too.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I take mental note of what he just said, at least that means I won’t be completely clueless when they interfere with what I think.</p><p>By now my body has mostly calmed down and my mind has settled. “I think it’s time to go do whatever you planned to do here.”</p><p><strong><em>“Just follow me and try to be quiet.” </em></strong> He stalks off into the forest moving around the trees like a cat, squeezing himself through gaps that seemed impossibly small. I follow him as quietly as I can which is easier said than done.</p><p>Not long after we got going, he stops, I keep sneaking until I’m next to his front legs.</p><p>Ahead lies a clearing with a pack of about a dozen wolves surrounding the fresh carcass of a deer.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“See those wolves up there on the clearing? They managed to catch a deer, they are too far away for me onto them from here, so if you could just stumble in there and draw them closer that would be great.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I look up at him in disbelief, does he really want to use me as wolf bait?</p><p><strong><em>“Come on you’ll be safe.” </em></strong>He gives me a gentle nudge with one paw, making me stumble towards the clearing. My foot catches on some root that was hiding in the grass beneath and I land in the dirt face first. The sound of me falling over alerts the pack of wolves and they all slowly approach the bushes that hide us, their growls make the air vibrate and the alpha begins to separate from the pack to check the source of the sound first.</p><p>I want to get up and run but knowing that Scáthán is standing right behind me makes me stay down.</p><p>Once the pack is only about a dozen feet away, I hear a quiet rustle next to me as he leaps forward into the clearing, time seems to slow down as he breaks through the bushes in front of us. The wolves all turn their attention to him, some immediately turn and attempt to run but most are frozen in place. He lands right on top the alpha and the five wolves standing closest to him crushing them, he wraps his tail around another two that happen to stand too close together and the one in front of him just gets swallowed whole immediately.</p><p>All of this happened in just a couple seconds, the four wolves that are still alive run for their lives, one even jumps right over me and then disappears into the thicket.</p><p>Still a bit dazed from hitting my head I slowly get up and pat the dirt out of my shirt and jeans, then I step onto the clearing where I just barely catch a glimpse of Scáthán swallowing another wolf. A look around reveals that he had already devoured most of his prey, leaving only one terribly mangled wolf and the deer cadaver lying on the blood splattered clearing, it had a horror movie esque vibe to it. I take a closer look at the sad remains of the wolf, it looks like it got run over by a steamroller, if I didn’t know it was a wolf just seconds ago, I would have a hard time figuring out what this mess of guts, blood, bones and fur was supposed to be. Funnily I don’t feel any disgust, even the smell of fresh blood and guts doesn’t manage to turn my stomach.</p><p>“Are you messing with my brain again?” I call out to Scáthán, just two days ago a scenery like this would have made me throw up but now it’s like any other day to me.</p><p><strong><em>“Hmmm?”</em></strong> He lifts swallows’ whatever part of the deer he just had in his maw and turns his head to me. <strong><em>“No, I’m too busy eating.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Strange.” </em>I think to myself but decide to not bother too much with it maybe I had just gotten used to it or maybe I was still out of it from flight.</p><p>Scáthán had by now cleaned up the massacre quite well, leaving only the blood soaked into the soil and a few bits and pieces of his prey lying around, it was quite an eerie thing to behold.</p><p><strong><em>“We’re almost done here. I just need to find some prey for Skaftá and then we can make our way back.” </em></strong>He already starts heading off into the undergrowth again and I follow him quickly.</p><p>As we prowl through the forest, I notice a lack of sounds, there are no birds singing or frogs croaking, just he sounds of me walking. <strong><em>“That’s what I meant when I said all the animals flee when we are around, and when I said all I meant all even the smallest critters.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod, honestly, I would flee too if I knew I weren’t on his menu.</p><p>Eventually I hear the splashing of water not too far off, the ground had started to grow muddy a couple yards earlier.</p><p>“Is this some sort of swamp? What are we here for?”</p><p><strong><em>“You’ll be surprised by how much food I’ll be able to find here.” </em></strong>He motions me to follow more closely now. <strong><em>“Watch out though otherwise you may end up like our unfortunate dinner.”</em></strong></p><p>Knowing what swamps can be like from school I try to step into his footsteps which is easier said than done. The forest around us grows thinner and thinner until eventually only grass and small bushes remain. Small and large seemingly shallow puddles are speckled throughout the grassland ahead of us.</p><p> At some point he just stops and sniffs one of the smaller puddles then he suddenly buries his head in it.</p><p>I watch from behind him with curious eyes, his neck moves around as if he’s looking for something.</p><p>After a couple seconds he pulls his head back out and, in his mouth, he holds a drowned boar, he shakes his head a little to get rid of the moss and dirt stuck in the boar’s fur, then consumes it whole without even chewing.</p><p>He turns to face me and looks rather proud of himself. <strong><em>“See this place is a treasure trove if you know where to step and look.”</em></strong></p><p>“I have to say that was very impressive indeed, this is basically a buffet for you isn’t it? And also, don’t drowned animals take longer to decay?”</p><p>He grins widely at me and nods. <strong><em>“Correct and correct, this moor is part of the reason we moved into that cave in particular.”</em></strong></p><p>Scáthán then continues along the paths between the puddles carefully avoiding certain seemingly innocuous spots, meanwhile he keeps his head low and sniffs the ground every now and then.</p><p>Every once in a while, he inspects a puddle a bit closer and almost always he then sticks his head in it to retrieve whatever animal drowned in it, usually it was boars or foxes.</p><p>I watch with growing interest as he keeps devouring them all not even chewing.</p><p>“Didn’t you say we were only looking for some food for Skaftá, also how come you don’t even chew your food?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I may have been hungrier than expected and I don’t chew because I enjoy the feeling of whole large prey sliding down my throat.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Not knowing what to make of that statement I just nod and u-huh, he just smiles and then continues sniffing around.</p><p>After a short period where he finds nothing of note he stops next to a rather large pool of water, he takes a deep breath and with a splash his head disappears in the murky water, this time around he takes a lot longer than usual to retrieve his prey, bubbles keep rising from the depths of the puddle but doesn’t appear to make any progress.</p><p>He digs his claws into the mud, and I can see the muscles in his front legs tense up, he starts to slip but soon manages to find some better footing and continue pulling.</p><p>With a loud splosh the prey comes lose and his head re-emerges from the puddle, in his mouth he holds an entire adult horse, it seems to be a domesticated one as it still has a saddle on its back.</p><p>I whistle. “Wow seems like quite the catch.”</p><p>He grins with the horse still in his mouth. <strong><em>“Yep but I also smell something you won’t like.”</em></strong></p><p>Scáthán plops the horse down next to him and sniffs the puddle again. <strong><em>“I smell a human down there too.” </em></strong></p><p>“You mean like, drowned human?” He nods and his head disappears in the water again, this time he finds what he is looking for much quicker and just seconds later his head resurfaces with the slightly bloated corpse of a female human in between his jaws.</p><p>She couldn’t have been dead for long, her skin was only slightly pale, her eyes were still looking intact and there no visible signs of decay anywhere, she even had her riding helmet still on her head.</p><p>“So, are you going to eat her too?” I ask curious but also slightly afraid of the answer.</p><p><strong><em>“What do you think why I dragged her up here? To look at her and then throw her back?” </em></strong>His voice is dripping with sarcasm.</p><p>“But what about the search party that will inevitably come looking for her?” His lack of concern worries me, it feels like this human is just another prey to him, though I really shouldn’t be surprised because I had been told previously that they do indeed eat humans too if need be.</p><p><strong><em>“She’ll be declared lost soon enough, there’ll be nothing left for them to find.” </em></strong>And with those words he unceremoniously devours her too like all the other prey before. I can feel a lump form in my throat, he does not care at all.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry Arya, you’re family to me, I would never do any harm to you.” </em></strong>Sensing my concern, he tries to soothe me.</p><p>I feel his tail slowly wrap around my chest and then he pushes my chin up with the tip of it to force me to look into his yellow eyes. <strong><em>“Trust me.” </em></strong>The sincerity in his voice is palpable and his smile fills me with a cosy warmth washing the last glimmers of concern away.</p><p>I would have nodded if I could’ve but luckily, he can sense it and let’s go off me again.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Well then, it’s time to go back now, I’ll make sure the flight is more pleasant this time.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>He wraps his tail around the horse’s corpse and drags it behind him, I follow staying close to his side.</p><p>Up until now out detour through the swamps had been going really well, I hadn’t even gotten my feet wet yet. Just as I finish that thought my right foot slips, I yelp as I find myself knee deep in mud. In an attempt to free myself again I try to push myself up with my left leg, but it slips too and now I’m almost in up to my hip.</p><p>Before I can even ask for help Scáthán already stopped and turned around to me. <strong><em>“Looks like someone got into a sticky situation huh?” </em></strong>His amusement is more than obvious and the stupid grin on his face doesn’t help hide it. “Erm sort of, I guess? I would greatly appreciate your help.”</p><p>I try to wiggle myself free but as expected it just causes me to sink in further.</p><p><strong><em>“Just hold still I’ll get you out of there.” </em></strong>He carefully grabs me with his jaws, while being stuck in his mouth doesn’t help putting me at ease, the last time I was in the same place Skaftá managed to not hurt me. So, for his and my own sake I force myself to hold still, I can feel his teeth poke against my skin like daggers, yet they don’t penetrate it.</p><p>He carefully starts pulling me out, at first it all goes slowly but then with a slurping sound I pop out of the puddle and then he gently places me in front of himself.</p><p><strong><em>“There we go, now try not slip again okay.” </em></strong>He winks and then gently nudges me forward.</p><p>Luckily it isn’t far until we make it back into the forest, I visibly relax once I can feel the mud beneath my feet be replaced by moss and leaves.</p><p>“Say how come we have to walk back into the forest? Wouldn’t it have been easier for you to take off in the swamp? There wouldn’t be any trees blocking your path.” I ask as I slow down a little until I’m walking next to him again.</p><p><strong><em>“While that is a good point and I have done that in the past, when I’m carrying a lot of weight the ground is a bit too soft and slippery for my comfort.” </em></strong>I nod slowly. “That’s what I thought but why soft though? I get the slippery bit, but it didn’t seem like you had any trouble with sinking into the ground.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Indeed, but that’s because I was walking on all fours, when I jump up into the air I put a lot of weight onto my hind paws and at that can get me stuck if I’m not careful and as I’ll be carrying about a ton of extra weight with me today I didn’t want to risk it.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I nod again and we continue our walk, in silence, just the sound of our footsteps sounding through the eerily quiet forest, eventually we make it back to the clearing where Scáthán stops abruptly, I stumble forward a bit further and then stop too.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s time.” </em></strong>He quickly grabs me with his mouth and places me on his back, it all happens so quickly I hardly get to react. <strong><em>“Would you want to fly with me in the more literal sense? I would take your mind into my body and then let you experience flying through me?” </em></strong>He asks, his eyes locked with mine.</p><p>As I think about my answer, I wrap my arms around his neck. “You mean like what you did the other time, where I saw the world through your eyes?” He nods quickly. <strong><em>“Indeed.” </em></strong></p><p>That offer didn’t sound bad indeed, but how could I make sure that I was still properly holding on?</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Don’t worry about that, your muscles should not relax, yesterday you didn’t slump over either.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>He was right, my body did stay upright when I was in his mind.</p><p>“Okay then, let’s go. I’m ready.” A wide smile forms on his face, then I feel my mind getting sucked towards his again, I feel like I’m falling again, and everything fades to white for a second. Suddenly I’m looking at myself again, my eyes have gone blank as if there is no one inhabiting my body again. Before I can think too much about it, he turns his head away from me, he looks around the clearing looking for the best place to take off from.</p><p>I can feel his thoughts going a million miles an hour and soon arriving at the conclusion that the path straight ahead of us is best suited when accounting for temperature and wind.</p><p>All of this happens so quickly I can just barely make out the rough outlines of his thoughts.</p><p>I can feel the tension in his hind legs rise and suddenly he leaps forward, with just one jump he makes it halfway across the clearing, he begins to unfold his wings and then jumps again, this time in a more upward direction. He easily clears the treetops and then fully unfolds his wings, his wings catch a breeze that lifts him up even further but also slows him down a bit, then he changes the angle of his wings a little bit and we start gliding forwards slowly losing height.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you alright? How did it feel?” </em></strong>He asks me excitedly but also slightly concerned.</p><p>I take a moment to reply as my mind is still trying to process all the input. “I’m alright yes and I don’t know what to feel just yet other than overwhelmed.”</p><p>He flaps his wings to regain some of the lost height. <strong><em>“That’s alright, it must be quite a weird feeling for you.” </em></strong>He senses my agreement and then focuses on flying again, the frequency of him flapping his wings increases as we slowly gain height.</p><p>Now that there was way less for me to process, I could actually take in the surroundings.</p><p>We were flying almost 1000 feet above the ground now constantly rising, yet we felt completely weightless, only the horse wrapped in his tail exerts some amount of gravity on us.</p><p>Next, I take a closer look at Scátháns mind as we fly, at first glance it doesn’t seem any more active than when he’s walking or lying around, upon closer inspection I can see that he is constantly correcting for slight deviations in the winds pattern and all sorts of other environmental influences.</p><p>I prepare myself for an onslaught of impressions and then dive into his thoughts instead of just watching from the side, at first, I get completely overwhelmed with all the sensory information flooding into his brain from every part of the body.</p><p>I can feel the wind blowing around his wings as if it were water flowing through my fingers, the almost miniscule pressure my body applies to his back, the weight of the horse that he’s carrying with his tail, the warmth of the sunrays getting absorbed by his black wings, the chill of the wind cooling his underside, the cold air flowing through his nostrils down his windpipe and into his lungs as he breathes in, his heart pounding in his chest and if I looked close enough I could even feel my own heartbeat through his scales.</p><p>All of this is what he felt in just a tiny fraction of a second and yet it seems like the most normal thing in the world to him.</p><p>I keep watching in awe trying to keep up, but my efforts prove futile and some things always slip through unnoticed.</p><p>Eventually I give up and focus on his feelings, I can sense calmness, joy and a very strong sense of freedom, like he belongs here, up in the sky. Now the feelings I had been feeling when we flew out made a lot more sense, they were his, he had been projecting them onto me to keep me calm and I have to say it worked very well.</p><p>When I actually get to pay attention to what he’s seeing I notice that we are not that far from the mountain anymore, the sun is still up high in sky, I assume it must be early noon, beneath us the forest is starting to dissipate.</p><p>Next, I notice that the short flight has been very taxing on his body, his heart is beating so fast I can hardly tell one beat from another, his breath goes heavy and slow, the muscles that he uses to control his wings burn and his wings feel like they are burning. His mind has gone into a much more primal state too, he’s only focused on making it back to the cave and nothing else.</p><p>I decide to withdraw from his mind as far as I can to not interfere with any thoughts.</p><p>Finally, we make it back home, he folds his wings together and his paws crash into the rocky side of the mountain. I can feel a wave of pain flood into his consciousness, it’s so strong some of it even makes it over into my mind making my feed and hands ache.</p><p>Scáthán slowly stumbles into the cave, dragging Skaftás food behind him.</p><p>He drags it just far enough so that she can reach it, then drops flat onto the ground, she appeared to just have been dozing as her eyes immediately snap open when she smells her food.</p><p>All the sudden I find myself getting forced back into my body, I take a second to realize that I am now in control of my own body again, in an attempt to figure out a way to get down I look around and find that the only way is to slide down his side.</p><p>Carefully I move one leg over his back and lower myself as far as I can, then I let go and quickly drop to the ground, much to my surprise the impact isn’t too bad.</p><p>I put an ear against his side to try and hear his heart beat and while it’s harder to hear it’s obvious that his heart is still racing.</p><p>As I pass his right wing while trying to walk around him, I can feel heat radiating from it, my curiosity is piqued and I slowly reach out to touch it, his wings feel so hot I have to withdraw my hand seconds after touching them. “Are you alright Scáthán?” I ask with concern in my voice.</p><p>Skaftá is the one to answer me. <strong><em>“He’ll be fine, he just overheated a little.” </em></strong>I quickly make my way around him and sit down between them, I look over to Scáthán, my concern not fully cleared yet.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“We don’t sweat, instead we use to surface area of our wings as heat sinks of sorts. That also means our wings can get very hot if we overwork ourselves. Remember yesterday when I came home very exhausted? If you would have touched my wings, then they would have been warm too.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>She reaches out for the horse cadaver, digs her teeth into it and drags it closer. <strong><em>“While we can carry a lot of weight for short distances, he really overdid it and he also flew during noon when the sun is the strongest which meant his wings actually absorbed more heat than they dissipated, leading to the situation he is in now.”</em></strong></p><p>Not wanting to watch her eat I get up and walk over to Scátháns head, where I kneel down and rub his head. He makes some tired happy sounding noises and smiles at me. <strong><em>“Thank you, I already feel better, the cold rocks and the chill air in the cave are really helping.” </em></strong>In the background I can hear</p><p>Skaftá tear into her meal with vigour.</p><p>“We could have walked a bit further so you wouldn’t have to fly as far you know, no one was rushing us home.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“I know, but Skaftá was hungry and I didn’t want to leave her like that for too long.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>He slowly lifts his head off the ground and gently nuzzles it against me.</p><p><strong><em>“But do you feel more safe flying with us now?” </em></strong>He rests his head on the floor again and I continue to pet him. “I honestly haven’t even gotten to think about that yet, I was too busy trying to keep up with all the things that were happening but if I had to answer I would say yes. It felt like you were very in control up there.”</p><p>He grins and for a moment all his pain is forgotten and replaced with happiness. <strong><em>“Could I take you on a little more fun flying adventure soon then?”</em></strong> He asks with almost childish joy in his voice.</p><p>“Depends on what <em>more fun</em> entails…” His excitement makes me have some second thoughts about it. A flood of memories rains into my head, I can see him soar through the air at aircraft like speeds, him flying the tightest turns physics lets him, him flying all sorts of loops, him playing with some prey by carrying them up high into the sky then dropping them just to catch them barely before they hit the ground and many more that I couldn’t catch as quickly.</p><p>Just the sight of some of these made me break out in cold sweat. “U-uhm later maybe.”</p><p>Recognising my reservedness he smiles. <strong><em>“We can start off slow, I won’t be doing these things with you on my back any time soon if you don’t want.” </em></strong></p><p>In the background I can hear Skaftá swallow the last bit of her meal and then lick her maws clean.</p><p><strong><em>“Be careful with her, remember humans are fragile. Oh, and thank you for fetching me lunch, that swamp really is a treasure trove huh? Didn’t expect you to return with either so much or so quickly.” </em></strong>Skaftá carefully turns around so she can rest her head next to me as well.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry I’ll take good care of her, so far I didn’t cause her to get as much as a scratch and I told you swamps are great.” </em></strong>Scáthán replies</p><p><strong><em>“Maybe no physical scratches but you got close enough to mentally scaring her more than once. Also did you really have to eat that woman right then and there with her watching? I could not come up with a worse time to do something like that.” </em></strong>She sounds almost annoyed.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s not like you were especially gentle with her when breaking her mind either and that almost had Arya going insane. Well it would have been just as weird if I made her look away or whatever right and it’s not like she has any positive feelings for humans either, we both know that.”</em></strong> I just sit there listening to them argue as I lean against Scátháns head.</p><p>“I was alright with him eating that woman, in the end it would have only raised suspicions if the horse were gone but she wasn’t. As he said I harbour no positive feelings for my human brethren.”</p><p>I try to fight down all the memories that suddenly try to make their way back into my consciousness.</p><p><strong><em>“Alright, I’ll give you that…” </em></strong>I can tell that she wants to inquire further but sensing what’s going on in my head she knows better.</p><p><strong><em>“Would you two mind if I nap for a little? I’m really tired.”</em></strong> He yawns and I almost fall over backwards into his mouth.</p><p>He shoots me an apologetic look before shifting around a bit to get more comfortable.</p><p>Both I and Skaftá shake our heads in unison, he smiles then closes his eyes and quickly falls asleep.</p><p>I turn around to face Skaftá, she seems quite tired too <strong><em>“I’ll go nap too, if you want you can too.” </em></strong>She lifts her wing up. “Don’t think I’ll be able to sleep. My mind is still racing honestly but I’ll gladly lie next to you.”</p><p>I make my way over to her side, as I lie down, she moves her so it’s right next to me and then drapes her wing over us.</p><p>Soon after I can sense that she too has drifted off to sleep, while I lie there my mind restlessly roaming around, one of the main concerns that came up today was whether or not I was actually here voluntarily or if I was just abducted and forced to live with them.</p><p>Since Scáthán demonstrated that they can indeed force me to feel a certain way I wasn’t even sure if I could trust my own feelings on the entire ordeal.</p><p>Maybe this was a case of Stockholm syndrome? I honestly couldn’t tell.</p><p>While part of me fully believes that I was kidnapped another part says the opposite, in the end I had been homeless for over a year previously with no chance of improving my situation, so really, they saved me from nature and myself by taking me in, also why would they keep me as a prisoner? They certainly didn’t need me for entertainment and if I was kept as food then why was I still alive? It didn’t seem like they cared about building up some sort of food stock, thus the explanation was either Skaftá pitied me and wanted to save me or they had some other ulterior motive that I didn’t find out about yet.</p><p>The first one made the most sense to me, they clearly were capable of empathy and they could easily read minds, so maybe when she found me she read my mind to see just who that person she was about to devour is, then she saw what I had gone through, felt pity for me and decided that instead of eating me she’d see if she could make my life better. Then again, they were also much smarter than any human so maybe they had other ideas for me though I had no clue what those could be.</p><p>To add even more to the pile of evidence that they cared about me, that they have been more of a mother and father to me than any human ever got close to being and I was fairly convinced that they didn’t mean any harm.</p><p>Eventually I settle for the theory of them trying to give me a second chance at having a good life, afterwards I begin to think about flying with Scáthán.</p><p>Now that I could process the memories at my own pace instead of being utterly overloaded, I realize just how in control he was, it wasn’t just like walking for him, it was even easier.</p><p>He knew exactly how the winds would act and how to counter them, and even if nature threw him a curveball, he’d react so quickly it didn’t affect him at all</p><p>The closest I have ever come to feeling like he does when flying was when I had swimming lessons at school and got to dive in the deep pool, down there I felt like I was truly in control of where I went with no restrictions.</p><p>Maybe I really should trust them more when they say not to worry, so far, every time they told me that it was true, hell Skaftá had already showed off just how capable they were of catching me if I were to fall. Thinking about that made me realize just how often I had been in their mouths and yet they always spat me out soon after never making a move to swallow me or even test bite or taste me, a thing most predators do when they are unsure of the edibility of their prey. Though the point of them being unsure whether or not I was edible didn’t really make any sense as they clearly didn’t mind eating humans, Scáthán had just eaten one with clothes and a damn helmet after all.</p><p>As my mind wanders again, I can’t keep myself from noticing how <em>nice </em>I felt in their mouths, that might mostly be due to certain <em>quirks</em> I had but even then, it doesn’t fully explain it, the best way to describe it was a feeling of safety and calmness as if I found my safe haven. Not wanting to stray into that part of my mind I shove those thoughts aside and focus on something else.</p><p>As my mind wanders aimlessly, I notice that I had been feeling a certain calmness that I usually only felt just before falling asleep next to either of the two dragons, I had never felt so calm before. Was it because of the dragons? Were they making me feel that or was it because I subconsciously always knew that I had found a real family and that I could finally feel at home and not need to worry about being judged? While I ponder what the answer to these questions may be, I begin to slip off to sleep as well. I try to stay awake but it’s a losing battle and soon enough I blink one last time before falling asleep.</p><p>I am awoken about an hour or so later by Skaftá shuffling around me, I sleepily stretch and yawn.</p><p>As she lifts her wing to remove her head, I see that my nap wasn’t just an hour but much longer actually. The sun had already begun approaching the horizon and the sky was tinted orange.</p><p>Looking over to Scáthán I see him stirring too, it’s likely that he’ll wake up soon too, I’m interrupted by Skaftá smacking me on the back of my head with her wing as she folds it together.</p><p><strong><em>“Oops sorry Arya.” </em></strong>He mumbles sleepily. “Aaah don’t worry.” I say nonchalantly. “My head’s still on my shoulders so everything is alright.”</p><p>She makes a laughing like sound and lightly stubs me with one of her front paws. <strong><em>“Don’t be silly little one.” </em></strong></p><p>By now Scáthán has woken up too and sleepily greets us, while the two of them lie around a little longer I make my way to the entrance of the cave and sit down to watch the sun set.</p><p>I cross my legs and rest my arms on top of them, then I let my eyes drift across the scenery that lies in front of me.</p><p>The mountain the cave is located in is on the corner of a mountain chain that stretches far in either direction, at the foot of the mountain lies the forest I and Scáthán had just hunted in earlier today and somewhere in there also lies the city I used to live in. I try to spot it but no dice, I couldn’t even spot a single trace of humanity, this mountain range was about as remote as it gets, I had my doubts humans even knew that this cave existed. I feel the ground reverberate a little as both Scáthán and Skaftá trot up to me and join me in watching the sun set. Even when I turn my head back as far as I can their heads barely appear in my field of view. They both appear to be looking down at me from what I can gather. I give them a warm smile and they both smile back before turning their heads skywards, I do so too and start looking for any stars that have already made their appearance.</p><p>Sadly, the sun is still too bright to let any of them shine through, but the sky looks beautiful nonetheless. Above us it was still blue like it was around noon but as my gaze approaches the horizon it slowly turns darker and darker shade of blue, before turning dark red, then bright red followed by orange and yellow only in the area closes to the sun. The sun itself had turned into a bright golden ball hanging a fingers width above the horizon it’s surrounded by an even brighter golden halo, possibly because its light was reflecting off some clouds. Talking about clouds the rest of the sky wasn’t perfectly uniform in colour either, parts of it had white speckles in the form of clouds spread throughout, though as you got closer to the sun the white was overpowered by the suns glow so the clouds ended up being a weird shade of white mixed with either red, orange or yellow.</p><p>I turn my attention back to the forest, maybe I could try and spot the lake where Skaftá found me or the swamp I and Scáthán went to today? My search for large opening or clearings in the forest turns up nothing though, maybe we had flown farther than expected.</p><p>Momentarily my eyes return to the cave, only as I look down my sides, I realize that Scáthán and Skaftá had both wrapped their tail around me in an alternating pattern of obsidian black and sapphire blue. The tips of their tails rest on my shoulders, then their tails join one another at my sternum where they wrap around my body left to right, their tails ever growing in thickness before parting ways behind my lower back. <em>“Sneaky…”</em> I think to myself and return my sight to the forest beneath, this time looking for rivers/stream cutting through it. This time I have some actual success spotting traces of those things, there is a small gap in the trees that is just wide and long enough to be of natural cause. After running out of things to look for I just zone out and let my eyes wander wherever not really thinking about what I’m looking at, just taking in the view so to speak.</p><p>The sun keeps approaching the horizon and eventually my eyes get stuck on it just before it and the horizon make contact for the first time, I watch closely as the golden disc that is our star begins to seemingly sink into the ground, the air around it whirring making it look like spacetime itself is being distorted by the rays of sunlight. As the sun keeps disappearing more and more it quickly gets darker and the dark blue that had previously just been a small band on the sky rapidly expands in both directions, though it expands much quicker away from the sun than towards it. In the centre of this band the first stars begin to shine through like tiny specks of diamonds floating up there.</p><p> </p><p>[The alternate ending]</p><p>Suddenly I feel a tightness in my chest, breathing rapidly grows harder, seconds later I find myself gasping for air.</p><p>Panicking I look up to Skaftá, she’s grinning but it looks different, it looks almost devious. My panic grows stronger, I didn’t manage to draw a proper breath in over 30 seconds, hoping that Scáthán could help me I look over to him, but he is grinning too.</p><p>Finally, I realize that their tails have started constricting around me, I grab Scátháns tail and try to pull it off me, but it doesn’t move an inch, my view grows blurry from the lack of oxygen.</p><p>Abruptly my panic vanishes and is replaced by a serene calm, where there was a will to fight there now is nothing, almost as if I voluntarily gave up but subconsciously something doesn’t feel right, as if these feelings are getting forced onto me. I try to break the mental shackles that had just be forced onto me, but my efforts prove futile.</p><p>Somehow, I had not lost my consciousness yet though I have started to feel lightheaded.</p><p>Before I can think much about what to do next a sharp pain shoots through my body, it doesn’t stay long however as it’s quickly drowned out by the empty calm. I don’t know why but I am sure that that was the feeling of a rib cracking under the immense pressure on my chest.</p><p>I look up to Skaftá with a pleading look to let me go but she’s just staring me down with this evil look, my heart drops as I realize that they both planned this, they did have ulterior motives though I am unsure as to what this is supposed to accomplish.</p><p>Now that the first rib had cracked it isn’t long before one breaks completely, with a quiet crack it gives way, pain again floods through my body but I can’t find it in me to care, my thoughts are now so slowed down by the empty calm void that has filled my mind that I can barely form any conscious thoughts and can just watch as I am squeezed to death.</p><p>With the one rib broken the others can’t bear the ever-increasing pressure much longer and with a series of sharp cracking sounds the remaining ribs give way, now that my ribs aren’t counteracting the force on my body anymore the rest of me quickly gets completely obliterated.</p><p>As my body had just been utterly destroyed and nothing is keeping my head attached to my shoulders it simply falls backwards, yet it doesn’t fall off entirely.</p><p>The skin and muscles of my neck keep it dangling in the air, lifeless. All my innards got turned into mush, only my skin holding it together, kind of like a bottle of ketchup contains the shredded remains of tomatoes. With my body destroyed my mind begins to give out too, the energy reserves quickly get consumed and my neurons slow down, many of them stop firing all together but at least the pain stops.</p><p>While the last sparks of life leave my mind, I look up at the two dragons that I had thought were my friends or even family, they both look satisfied with what they have done to me, a single tear rolls out of my eyes before I close them preparing to fade into nothingness.</p><p>Whilst I wait for the void to swallow me, I can feel something tug on my dying mind, I find myself getting torn out of my head, I can’t tell by whom though as my mind is greatly impaired. Suddenly I find myself coming back to “life” as my mind stops fading away, I can feel that I had been placed in a body, whom it belongs to I have no idea, but it definitely isn’t human.</p><p>I attempt to open my eyes but see nothing but complete blackness, any attempts to move around lead me into smooth walls, I try to beat them down with my “hands”.</p><p>At first nothing happens but as I keep kicking and punching, eventually I feel the wall start to give way. Motivated by my minor progress I double my efforts and soon manage to create a small hole, hardly any light is streaming through it, but my eyes quickly adapt to the darkness and I manage to make out an all too familiar cave. I continue to try and break free off my prison and a couple minutes later the hole has grown big enough for me to break free.</p><p>As I stumble into freedom and look around, I realize that this is indeed the same cave I had just been murdered in.</p><p>I take a look at my new body and find that it’s covered in anthracite covered scales and is all too similar in shape to that of Skaftá &amp; Scáthán. Inspecting my body further erases all doubts that they had somehow taken my mind and shoved into that of one of their hatchlings.</p><p>I look for them and find them still sitting in the entrance of the cave, their tails still intertwined with blood and guts leaking out in between them, my head lying on the floor not too far away, their eyes are fixated on me, their grins are gone and got replaced by the all too familiar warm smiles.</p><p>A single question dominates my mind, why? I try to speak but all that leaves my throat is a quiet chirping sound. Much like before I don’t even need to speak out loud to get an answer from them,</p><p>Skaftá is the first to speak up to answer my question. <strong><em>“We gave you a new body Arya, seeing as you didn’t like your old one, we decided it was the best for you.”</em></strong></p><p>While it answers the why questions I now ask myself “Why like this? Why did you have to betray my trust? Why did you have to murder me?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“You wouldn’t have given up your body, voluntarily would you? Also ripping your mind out of your body is easier when you are dying, and we made it as painless for you as we could.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Scáthán is the first to answer this time.</p><p>Now that I know their reasons a flood of emotions settles in, ranging from anger, confusion and fear to disappointment and sadness.</p><p>I cower in a corner of the nest and shut my mind off from the outside world not wanting to be in contact with anyone, I curl up and hide my head under my wings. The turmoil in my head doesn’t slow down at all over the next few hours but eventually exhaustion overwhelms me, and I fall asleep.</p><p>By the time the next morning had rolled around and I had awoken my mind had settled down a lot more, while I was still feeling the same as I did yesterday, the emotions were a lot weaker and I felt like that I could open up again, if only a little.</p><p>I uncurl and look around, while they had moved closer throughout the night, they had both kept their distance from me.</p><p>Gathering all my courage I make my way over to Scáthán and poke him with my paws in an attempt to wake him up, it takes a couple tries but eventually he opens his eyes and sleepily blinks at me.</p><p> </p><p>The rest of her memories after this point became a blur, so I can’t write in too much detail about it. What I can tell you however is that, while it took a long, long time, she did manage to restore her trust into her new parents and eventually accepted her new body too. While she never did fully forgive them for what they did to her that night they all moved past its years later and she wound up growing up into a strong and fierce dragon teaching her siblings many things about her human past.</p><p>Where she is now is a mystery to me too but she’s still out there, somewhere, hiding in a cave most likely.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>[Back to normal]</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>I watch as more and more of them appear out of seemingly nowhere, soon they cover almost the entire sky, only in a small area close to where the sun set stays free of them, for now.</p><p>The moon has yet to make an appearance, though that may just be because it has risen behind us.</p><p>My exploration of the sky is interrupt by a warm gust of air ruffling my hair, I turn around to see where I came from and find myself staring right into Skaftás huge sapphire blue eyes, they also appear to have a slight glow to them. Her eyes enthral me almost instantly, I find myself staring into the black abyss that is her pupils, getting completely lost in them. Only when she blinks do I manage to break free and look around again, as I turn to look at Scáthán I find his head too is much closer than before, at first I think they both just lowered their heads to be closer to me but then I look down and notice that the grey rocks I had been sitting on are almost 15 feet away.</p><p>It’s obvious that they had lifted me up with their tails but then why does it still feel like I’m sitting on solid ground? I shift around and reach for the invisible barrier that I appear to be sitting on and indeed, as I try to reach under my butt my fingers bump into something solid, I move myself a bit further to try and see what it is but all I see is thin air. In the hopes of getting some answers I look up to Skaftá, she hasn’t taken her eyes of me at all and they still glow ever so slightly.</p><p>Before I can turn my thoughts into words she answers <strong><em>“Yes it’s my doing. What you are seeing is me using magic to create an invisible platform for you to sit on.” </em></strong>Her voice sounds smooth like silk</p><p>My eyes grow wide with excitement, I had been curious about their magic abilities but never had the time to ask as they had been showing me so many things, I was too busy to remember it.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“This is just a small little trick though. I can do so much more with it.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Now I felt excited, I could tell she was going to show me so many things, barely containing my giddiness I watch as she lifts one of her paws and turns it, so her claws are facing upwards.</p><p>The glow in her eyes grows a bit more intense and a small flame flickers to life hovering just an inch above her paw, the flow grows even stronger and the flame turns into a ball of fire about a foot in diameter.</p><p>The flames are completely silent, not even the slightest crackle is to be heard, trying to spot a source of fuel proves pointless too just like I expected, they are magic flames after all.</p><p>After I had watched the ball of fire for a couple minutes, being completely hypnotised by it, Skaftá lets it die, the flames simply dissipate into nothingness and the cave gets swallowed by darkness again. I just now realize how dark it had gotten. My eyes struggle to perceive anything more than a couple feet away, even once they had adapted to the lack of light.</p><p><strong><em>“Let me help you with that.” </em></strong>Says Scáthán and suddenly everything greatly increases in brightness as if I were looking through night vision goggles.</p><p>“This is magic too isn’t it?” I whisper quietly, he nods quickly. <strong><em>“If you want, I can make it even better.” </em></strong>Skaftás voice isn’t much more than a whisper either.</p><p>A slight headache spreads throughout my head starting near my neck, I rub my temples in an attempt to lessen the dull ache. As the headache slowly fades again my vision turns blurry, I squint in an attempt to see clearer but it’s of no use.</p><p><strong><em>“No need to worry you’ll be able to see clear soon.”  </em></strong>Skaftá tries to calm me as she can feel me getting anxious.</p><p>Just like expected about a minute later my eyesight returns to normal, as if nothing changed, I look around and try to figure out what changed but nothing strikes me as different.</p><p>I look up to her with a confused look and she nods her head in the direction of the forest.</p><p>I turn my head to see what she was wanting me to look at, at first, I see the usual sight of nothing but trees, I try to look closer and suddenly it feels like the treetops are coming closer to me.</p><p>If I weren’t wrapped so tightly in their tails, I would have jumped back but since I can only move my arms, I cover my eyes and turn my head away.</p><p>“What the hell was that?” I mumble. Once I had gotten over the initial shock, I remove my hands again and slowly turn to look at the forest again, it seems perfectly normal and unmoving like it should. Again I try to focus on a particular spot in the forest, a patch of pine trees in the middle of broadleaf, just like last time it seems like they come closer and closer the more I try to focus, soon enough I can even make out single leaves and needles even though the trees must be over a mile away.</p><p>When I remove my mental focus from the trees they appear to slowly move away again.</p><p><strong><em>“How do you like your draconic vision? It’s not permanent, yet.” </em></strong>They speak in unison, the combined force of their voices rushing through my head gives me another minor headache and I rest my head in my palms.</p><p>“Sorry this is too much right now… I don’t know what to make of it quite yet.” I shake my head to clear my mind.</p><p>They both encourage me to keep trying and that I’ll get used to it soon enough, at first, I am reluctant but after trying a couple more times I do indeed get used to it, or at least used to enough to not be freaked out by it.</p><p>Soon I find myself actually enjoying my enhanced sight quite a bit.</p><p>Later after I got bored of just looking around, I suggest we play a game of “I spy with my little eye….” It takes a little explaining for them to understand it but after a first test round they quickly catch on and appear to enjoy it quite a bit too.</p><p>Now I was no match for either of them at any point, maybe because their sight was even better than mine or maybe because they snuck a peek at my thoughts, in the end I didn’t care though it was fun, and we all had a grand old time.</p><p>Time flies when you are having fun and soon enough several hours had passed even though it felt like we had just started.</p><p>We only realize how much time had passed when Scáthán points out that the moon had crept into our field of view, the three of us play another couple round but then agree that it’s better to go to sleep. By this point the spell they had put on me to enhance my eyesight had already begun to dwindle.</p><p>They keep me wrapped in their tails as they both head over to the nest, their movements are nearly perfectly synchronized. Once they had lain down Scáthán unwraps his tail and Skaftá tucks me under her wing, we say our goodbyes and soon I feel how their minds become dormant and not soon after I too join them in the realm of dreams.</p><p>Even though last night’s dreams ended rather unpleasantly, I still find myself giddy while I drift off to sleep and almost immediately the vivid dreams start back up.</p><p>This time it begins with me already flying through the air, I feel “larger” in a sense, as if I wasn’t a six foot, hundred-forty-pound human but much rather a dozens of feet long, several thousand-pound misfit. When I try to take get a glimpse of myself it looks like the dream itself isn’t sure what I should look like, what I perceive looks like a human still but warped in a way that eludes description. Oddly though, my body still controlled the same it did in previous dreams, I could still feel my limbs, and even my wings felt the same, if larger.</p><p> I decide to not concern myself with it, weirder things have happened in my dreams, instead I focus on my surroundings, it appears that I’m flying dozens of hundreds of feet above a desert, the sun is scorching hot and not a single bit of shade in sight, yet somehow I find that the heat doesn’t bother me, just like flying didn’t appear to exhaust.</p><p>The endless dunes of the bleak wasteland below me stretch to the horizon no matter where I look, and I have a hunch that they go on for much longer than I can see. There is nothing disrupting the infinitely waving sand, no shrivelled-up tree carcasses, no animals, no trace of any life is to be found by my wandering eyes. As I fly over this ocean of blistering hot sand, looking for a purpose, I notice that my wings feel much more powerful. Every single swing of them takes me much further than it used to.</p><p>Seeing that there is absolutely nothing to be seen around this place I begin to mess around again, flying loops, spirals and anything that gives me that little adrenalin kick but always erring on the side of caution to not lose control again like I did last time. Even when I exert myself as hard as I can I can’t get myself to break a sweat, even in this hundred plus (38°C+) degree weather.</p><p>Just as I throw myself into a downward spiral while I spin around my own axis, I notice a figure in my peripheral vision, it passes much too fast to make out much more than a rough shape. It’s flying near the horizon and spears to have wings similar in size to mine. My curiosity is immediately piqued, what is something this large doing in my dream? The descent is quickly halted, and I divert my flight to approach the shadowy figure, how it remains shrouded in blackness is a mystery to me and only makes me want to investigate it more.</p><p>The sandbanks fly past beneath me as I speed towards this <em>thing </em>and even as I draw closer and closer its outline remains blurry, it also doesn’t seem to notice me but that might just be because I’m approaching it from behind. Where is the front and back of this creature anyway? Now that I’m actually trying to make out details it appears that reality tries even harder to hide the true shape of it from me until I can only see a blurry blob cloaked in black smoke that flows unaffected by wind and gravity.</p><p>At no point during my pursuit do I stop to wonder if I should be approaching this <em>thing</em>, I’m fully consumed by my curiosity.</p><p>Soon I covered more than half the distance between me and my target, still the <em>thing </em>doesn’t react and now it also looks like it is entirely stationary, just floating in the air, staying afloat by no visible mechanism. While I had been paying less attention to its shape the darkness around it began to dissipate, now I can make out many more features of this entity.</p><p>For a moment my heart sinks, it looks like a dragon and a human were thrown into a blender and the result of it was this miscreation, human arms and legs, wings of a dragon, a long human neck with an elongated and malformed human head on it. The head catches my attention especially, its basic shape reminds of that of Skaftá, but it lacks scales, like the rest of the body, the tip of the snout is too flat for a dragon, a human nose looks like it was haphazardly attached, and human ears protrude out the side of its head. Its eyes are closed, which might be for the better.</p><p>The revolting looks of this creature make me enter a steady glide as I ponder why something like this can even exist, and if I should keep approaching it. I don’t get to decide that however, as the <em>thing</em> suddenly begins to move itself, it slowly opens its eyelids, I can feel its burning gaze on me and when I look into its eyes I freeze entirely, those are unmistakably my eyes.</p><p>The creature releases a bone chilling screech, high and low in pitch at the same time, like a dragon and human screaming at the same time. My face twists into a mask of terror as I cover my ears, what is this nightmarish creature?</p><p>Suddenly it stops screaming and flies towards me like a bullet, its shadowy wings dragging clouds of darkness behind it.</p><p>For a moment I am unable to react to it, too deep runs the fear it struck in my heart and I just know it has it out for me and won’t stop till either I or it are dead.</p><p>It strikes a ferocious blow with its long human looking appendages, sending me tumbling towards the ground. Finally, I snap out of my paralysis and the fight or flight response kicks in and I decide to fight. Fleeing from this thing just feels outright impossible, why? I don’t know, it’s instinctual.</p><p>With a growl I fold my wings close to my body to gain some distance on it, then I quickly spread my wings again and turn around. The night terror is much closer than I thought it would be, we crash into one another, plummeting downwards in a mess of arms, legs and bodies. I regain my bearings first and use the moment to push it away from me and then land a strike across its chest. The <em>thing</em> tries to get away from me, but I won’t let it, with a couple quick flaps of my wings I catch up hit its upper back twice with full force. Each blow makes it tremble and clouds of dark smoke puff out of it, enshrouding us both, blocking the sun with scary efficiency. As it squirms to try and get away more and more fumes waft out of it and it appears to…shrink?</p><p>At first, I don’t believe what I’m seeing, but yes, with every gust of darkness escaping this being it shrinks, deflates like a balloon. An evil grin spreads across my lips, not so scary, now are we? Encouraged by my success I quickly shoot forwards for another strike, when it sees me approaching it again, it screams again, again a shrill human shriek and a dragon’s roar leave its mouth, this time fear tainting its voice. When my blow connects with its side the deep roar suddenly dies down a lot, the human part now clearly dominating and in the short moment before it stops screaming, I notice something.</p><p>Something that makes me hesitate again, what exactly is this thing? I feel sure that I heard myself in there, distorted sure, but I was still certain that this voice coming from it was my own.</p><p>The being uses this moment to attempt to flee from, at first, I want to continue my pursuit, but did I really have to? It seemed to be scared enough to leave me alone.</p><p>No.</p><p>I had to finish this now, if it recovers and comes back, I might be in for a bad time, only because I got lucky, did I manage to get away with my skin intact.</p><p>By the time I make my decision to end it, the <em>thing</em> already put quite some distance between me and it, fortunately when I hit its side, I must have damaged one wing as it feebly tires to flutter away, puffing out lots of dark smoke with every one of its movements.</p><p>With two, three quick flaps of my wings I catch up with it, in its weak attempt to flee it shrunk to the point where I can almost grasp it. I bring down my hand on it, slapping it away like an annoying little bug. It tumbles through the air, completely losing control of it and screaming weakly, now with both voices again. By the time I catch up with it again I can easily close my hands around it, I grip it tight with both hands, darkness wafting around my fingers as I do so, like water being squeezed out of a sponge.</p><p>I lock eyes with it again, it’s pleading gaze making me doubt whether I should kill it or not. With a quick shake of my head I push those thoughts aside, I mustn’t hesitate, I have to finish this.</p><p>With my grip tightening the last clouds of darkness leave its body, and then with one quick motion I snap it in half.</p><p>For a couple seconds it keeps struggling, making no sounds, then it stops. I take a closer look at the broken halves of what was a scary monster just minutes ago but as I try to inspect them, they begin to crumble and disintegrate into dust.</p><p>With a sigh I shake my hands to get rid of the sand like powder it left behind, this dream really didn’t want me to see what this thing looked like.</p><p>A feeling of euphoria over comes me, I just destroyed this damn thing, this otherworldly horror. I feel like nothing could stop me now, I am the queen of the skies and those who tread in my territory better watch out, for the first time since I can remember I feel powerful, strong, in control. The need to scream my success out into the world rises in my chest and I just let it go, I feel invincible.</p><p>A mighty triumphant scream leaves my lungs but suddenly a deep guttural roar joins in, like that of a dragon.</p><p>Immediately, I freeze, what the hell was that? I try again, and again I scream with two voices, one human, one dragonish. Did I become what I just killed? Did I turn into the same terror that I just rid this world of? No, no I didn’t, there is no darkness within me, I still felt the same, I still felt like me.</p><p>Or did I?</p><p>I raise my hand in front of my eyes again, the blurriness has disappeared, I can now see myself clearly. My fingernails grow into long claw like things, looking at my arm I spot several spots with cracked scabs on it, it reminds me of dried mud in the summer, the crust itself looks nothing like my skin, more like red scaly keratin. I try to pluck at it, but it doesn’t budge, it’s fused with my skin.</p><p>I lower my head to take a look at the rest of my body, it too got warped, looking like a cruel cross breed of human and dragon, more dragon than human by the looks of it. My entire body is covered in flecks of these reddish scaly scab and the skin that isn’t covered looks rather leathery, like someone threw me into a tanning bath. As I turn and crane my head, I notice that it has a lot more mobility than it should have and when I reach up to feel my neck it’s much longer than it should be, at least by a factor of five or six. I run my hands up to my head, it took on the shape of a dragons too, even more so than that monster I just killed, the out of place looking nose is gone, replaced by two large nostrils embedded into the tip of my snout. My human ears have all but merged with the side of my head too. Slowly, I open my mouth and run my fingers over my teeth, the molar teeth feel much the same, but the front teeth feel much sharper and pointier, like daggers and the canine teeth appear much longer than usual.</p><p>Only then I realize that over the past few days I had been turning into a dragon in my dreams.</p><p>It all makes sense now, the transition began with the wings appearing out of nowhere, then my incredible endurance and now my appearance, for all I know I might fully be one tomorrow. The only thing that’s missing now is the ability to breathe fire.</p><p>I stop myself, what if I could already breathe fire? I hadn’t tried yet and with how far along my transition was I feel pretty sure that I should be able to. The same way I figured out how to fly.</p><p>With shut eyes, I take a deep breath and turn my focus inwards, looking for anything that feels different within me. As the hot air rushes into my lungs, I feel something in my upper chest. A sensation similar to a full bladder, how I didn’t notice this before I can’t tell but now, I can’t ignore it any more. When I breathe out, I let go off the contents of this bladder like organ, my throat and chest fill with an immense heat, like a pyre raging in my insides. The feeling rushes up my throat and into my mouth together with the air that I breathe out. Instinctively I open my mouth as wide as I can in fear of getting burned by the raging flames.</p><p>What I was feeling wasn’t just the sensation of flames, it is actual fire. The moment my breath leaves my mouth I’m blinded by a torrent of raging flames erupting from my throat.</p><p>The heat tingles on my skin and burns on the inside of my mouth, yet it doesn’t quite hurt but it’s enough to scare me.</p><p>Quickly, I shut my mouth with an audible clap, the flames fizzle out of existence and only a light acidic tingle remains on my tongue. I take a deep breath and when I breathe out with a sigh a puff of soot accompanies my breath.</p><p>Now I’m entirely sure that I turned into a dragon, I could fly like one, I had claws and teeth like one, I could breathe fire like one and I’m growing scales like one. What do they say again? If it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.</p><p>Well I could now roar like a dragon and look like one too so I could consider myself one.</p><p>For a moment I fear what I have become but then I remind myself that this is a dream, and even if it were real it would still be the best thing to ever happen to me. The powerful euphoria and feelings of invincibility return, I feel the urge to scream again, make it known that I’m the ruler of the skies and that no one should dare to cross me.</p><p>I throw my head back and scream as loud as I can. A deafening roar leaves my throat, the soundwaves are strong enough to slightly distort the light around my head. It sounds almost entirely like a dragon. My human voice grows so faint I can just barely hear it. Occasional short bursts of fire join my bellowing, but they don’t scare me anymore, if anything they make feel even mightier.</p><p>Eventually I run out of breath and have to stop, everything falls eerily quiet and only the sound of wings swooping through the air is heard. A happy and content smile appears on my face, I can live like this. As I aimlessly glide over the desert I wallow in my thoughts, imagining all the things I could do now that I became a dragon.</p><p>As time passes everything around me begins to fade to black, as if the sun was setting in my dream, soon the dream ends, and I spent the rest of my sleep in a dreamless state.</p><p>Because we had spent a large portion of the last night awake playing around none of us wake before noon and even then, we all feel quite tired still.</p><p>Skaftá gently nudges me awake with her snout. <strong><em>“Little one it’s time to wake up.” </em></strong>Her voice gently sounds through my head like the chirping of birds.</p><p>I lazily try to push her head away and grumble something about needing 10 more minutes, she won’t have it and blows a gust of hot air at me making my hair fly into my face.</p><p>I get surprised by the blast of air and the adrenaline has me wide awake within seconds.</p><p>She smiles smugly and nudges me again. <strong><em>“No more lazing around.” </em></strong>She undoes her tail and plops me onto the ground.</p><p>The sudden impact makes me lose my orientation and as I struggle to figure out where I am in my sleep drunk state, I feel disappointment rise as I realize that becoming a dragon was just a dream. Eventually I shake my tiredness and stretch thoroughly.</p><p>As I stretch, I notice that I had begun to smell again, I wrinkle my nose and get up to grab me a new change of clothes and then head into the depths of the cave. Skaftá had already sensed what I wanted to do and immediately followed suit while Scáthán took over egg duty for the time being.</p><p>Soon the sun doesn’t reach us anymore and she conjures a wan blueish orb of light to guide the way.</p><p>I pay more attention to the orb floating half a dozen feet ahead of us than surroundings and wind up almost running into the stone walls again and again.</p><p>The orb itself seems perfectly round though I can’t make out any distinct border between the air and the ball of light, generally it seems completely featureless, no deviations in colour or unevenness in its surface, its movements are perfectly smooth, it never accelerates or decelerates either.</p><p>Skaftá directs the ball to lead me to the underground lake where she positions it about a meter above the steaming surface.</p><p>I hadn’t noticed the change in our surroundings at all and only notice that we had reached our destination once the orb stops.</p><p>After I had put my new clothes off to the side, I begin to strip off my old clothes and throw them off to the side. Skaftá had turned away the moment I had begun to undress and patiently stares off into the darkness behind us until she hears me walk into the steaming hot lake.</p><p>I keep my head facing her as I slowly swim backwards into the lake, she watches me from the edge, and I can sense her contemplating whether or not she wants to join me.</p><p>After a short moment she suddenly hops forward and lands in the water just about 2 feet away from me. The wave caused by her pushes me underwater and the currents caused by her displacing so much water fling me into her scales and keep me down a few seconds. The instant I regain my orientation I swim back to the surface.</p><p>I gasp for air as my head breaks through the water surface, my eyes burn from the hot and acidic water that got into them, I groan as I shut them tight and rub them to alleviate some of the pain.</p><p>Fortunately, the pain doesn’t linger for long, soon I am able to open my eyes and though my vision is extremely blurry at first it quickly recovers. Once I’m able to see clear again I look over to Skaftá, she looks incredibly worried but when she sees that I’m fine her worry fades.</p><p>I suddenly feel mischievous and playfully splash water at her.</p><p>To say that that wasn’t a great idea would be an understatement, she retaliates by smacking one of her paws into the water at full force creating another wave that pulls me under water again.</p><p>Once I made it back to the surface again, I immediately prepare to strike back but as I’m about to smack my hand into the water again I realize that it’s just going to end like last time, instead I slowly lower my arm and just float in place.</p><p>Skaftá smiles at me smugly. <strong><em>“Good choice little one, if you didn’t stop, I might have taken more drastic measures.”</em></strong> Pictures of her wrapping her tail around my legs and dragging me under water until my breath nearly runs out flow into my mind.</p><p><strong><em>“Maybe not that drastic but who knows.” </em></strong>She winks at me. <strong><em>“Nonetheless, I have a feeling you want to explore the deeper parts of the cave, there isn’t much to the cave before the lake but there is something on the other side, it would require us to dive quite far though.”</em></strong></p><p>A memory of her swimming along the bottom of the lake, only weakly illuminated by a familiar pale blue orb, she seems to be swim through an opening leading to another part of the cave and then after swimming on for another minute she resurfaces in a very different looking part of the cave.</p><p><strong><em>“If you can’t hold your breath for that long I can help you with that, oh and I’ll need to protect your eyes because the lake is quite acidic.” </em></strong>I nod eagerly, I indeed had been hoping to take a closer look at the deeper parts of the cave but alas I hadn’t had time for much of anything ever since I got adopted. She seems happy and her smile grows wider, then her eyes glow oh so slightly again.</p><p>I await another wave of headaches, but nothing happens, soon the glow in her eyes dies down again. <strong><em>“That’s it now try and keep up.” </em></strong>Without another word she dives down into the depths of the lake, the blue orb of light follows suit.</p><p>I don’t get much time to think as the light from the orb quickly fades, I take a deep breath and dive down into the black abyss too following the dim glow of the orb. Much to my surprise the water doesn’t even make contact with my eyes as I submerge my head, it feels as if there is a bubble of air stuck and it kind of distorts my view.</p><p>I start following the orb as fast as my body lets me, our trip leads us downwards for almost a minute, the lake is much deeper than I thought I think to myself. I also notice an increase in temperature to an unpleasant degree, my skin tingles and burns but I don’t get to worry about that too much.</p><p>Swimming as fast as I can makes me run out of breath soon, I try to suppress the urge to breathe as long as I can, my vision grows blurry and I feel lightheaded from the lack of oxygen in my body, eventually my instincts take over and force me to take a deep breath, I expected water to rush in and fill my lungs leaving to suffocate but no, surprisingly fresh if steamy and kind of warm air fills my oxygen starved lungs.</p><p>As the lack of air forced me to slow down the sickly blue glow had almost completely faded and been replaced by absolute darkness, panic overcomes me, I did not want to be stuck in this lake in complete and utter darkness even if I could breathe underwater.</p><p>The fear of being left behind makes me double my efforts to keep up and I swim faster than I have ever before.</p><p>Soon I pass through a round hole it appears to be similar to the one Skaftá swam through but much larger, or is that just the change of perspective making it seem bigger?</p><p>After we passed the hole the diffuse glow changes direction to a slightly upwards angle, and before I know it, I find myself approaching the surface.</p><p>My head breaks through the surface of another lake, automatically I gasp for air though there is no reason to.</p><p>Now that we are out of the water the orb appears much brighter, I swim closer to it and soon find myself able to stand again. The fog in this part of the cave is much denser and the air feels warmer and more humid.</p><p>Through the veil of mist, I can finally make out the shape of Skaftá, I speed up my steps and wind up almost running into her. We stand at the shore of the lake, the orb of light showering us in its blue light. I look up to her and we lock eyes, I had expected her to be checking my naked body out but instead her eyes are fixated on mine.</p><p>I laugh weakly as I realize just how silly that thought was, she’s a dragon not some perverted human obviously she doesn’t care about how I look, I look down at my feet and notice that they look off.</p><p>I raise my arms into my field of view and my eyes grow wide in shock, my entire body is bright red like a lobster, I carefully put one of my hands on my forearm but as soon as it makes contact quickly withdraw it. The mere touch was enough to send a searing pain through my entire arm, my skin felt blistering hot.</p><p>With panic in my eyes I look up to Skaftá. “Help…” I plead her. She had already lowered her head to take a closer look at my arms, as she inspects them, I pay close attention to her mind’s reaction.</p><p>Her thoughts too get filled with worry and then she says to me. <strong><em>“Oh, sorry dear I forgot that the water gets hotter closer to the bottom and the acids probably don’t help either, but I can fix this, it may hurt though.” </em></strong>I trust her as she had fixed my broken bones before and tell her to just do whatever it takes to stop this as I was starting to feel the burn all over my body.</p><p>She stares into my eyes and they begin to glow again, faintly at first, but it rapidly grows brighter until they almost outshine the orb.</p><p>A tingle runs through my body, starting in the parts of my body that are closest to her, the tingle grows into a burning ache and the blue orb flickers in and out of existence and then the pain quickly fades away.</p><p>Once it was all over, I look down at my arms again, they are the pasty white colour they used to be with no trace of the burns left behind, I also realize the pain must have forced me down onto my knees. I take one slightly shaky breath and get up. “Thank you.”</p><p><strong><em>“It’s partly my fault too, I forgot that your skin is more sensitive than my scales.” </em></strong>She gently nudges me <strong><em>“You humans are so soft and fragile.” </em></strong></p><p>“It happens. Luckily you have magic in case something does go wrong and compared to you anything is fragile.” Now I finally get to take a look around this part of the cave, while the fog coming off the lake makes it kind of hard to see I can still make out that we are in a large cavern, its walls are covered in some beige mineral deposits, stalagmites and stalactites of varying sizes are growing from the floor and ceiling of the cave turning them into forests of sorts.</p><p>I carefully make my way over to one of the very large ones near us that had grown so tall it joined in the middle and take a closer look at it. Thanks to the high humidity in the cave the surface of it is always kept wet allowing it to grow extremely smooth, I carefully touch it and let my hand glide over it, it feels much like a candle covered in oil, smooth and slippery.</p><p>I can see the blue light move behind me as Skaftá follows me, I look over my shoulder to see her standing slightly off to my right and she too was inspecting the stalagnate.</p><p>“What do you think, just how old is this one?” I ask looking up to the ceiling in an attempt to estimate its height. <strong><em>“Old, very, very old. Tens of thousands of years.” </em></strong>She turns her head to look at me. <strong><em>“I was told by my parents that they grow about 3 feet in ten millennia.” </em></strong>I nod slowly, all of these had been here long before either of us were born and will still be here long after we had departed this world.</p><p>We both admire this wonder of nature for a while longer before we slowly and carefully make our way through the forest of rock icicles.</p><p>Again, Skaftá surprises me with her incredible agility as she makes her way through the stalactite cave, she doesn’t even touch a single one of them, in the meantime I struggle to not slip and fall.</p><p>As we make our way deeper into the grotto the fog quickly dissolves letting the blue orb illuminate much more of our surroundings, once the fog was gone the dripstones disappear too and the ground becomes a lot less slippery. I speed up my steps to catch up with Skaftá, the two of us walk through the scarily empty cave in silence. “Why is this place so empty? I’d expect some sort of life down here but there is nothing at all.” My voice echoes for way too long, growing fainter and fainter every time.</p><p><strong><em>“That may be because this cave has been cut off from the outside for an eternity, the only way to access it is through the lake we swam through.” </em></strong>For a second, I was waiting for her voice to cause an echo too, then I remembered that only I can hear her.</p><p>As we continue through the cave there nothing catches my eye, just grey rocks tinted slightly blue by the orb of light, I was getting quite disappointed with just how boring this place was.</p><p>Then after turning another corner just like the many ones before we end up in another cavern, this one is huge, the ceiling is just barely illuminated by the orb, I assume Skaftá could stand up on her hind legs and still not touch the ceiling, the left and right hand walls are some sixty feet in either direction and the other end of the cavern lies in the darkness still.</p><p>As I look ahead of us, I notice a slight purple sparkle in the darkness, I quickly walk closer as I approach, I notice that the ground had changed beneath my naked feet, previously it had been mostly smooth rock but now it was getting rather pointy and painful to walk on.</p><p>The stinging pain in my feet makes me stop and look down, the ground is covered in small amethyst crystals, most not larger than half an inch.</p><p>I kneel down, the crystals stinging my knees making me grimace a little, then I run my hand across them, the crystals themselves are smooth like glass but their size makes it feel like I’m running my hand across a field of glass splinters. I raise my head to see what lies deeper into the cavity, but I can’t make anything out, that’s when I realize that neither Skaftá nor the glowing orb had moved.</p><p>As if on cue I sense the blue orb quickly float towards me, pass over my head and fly off into the darkness ahead of me, as it soars further into the cave bigger and bigger crystals come into view.</p><p>I watch in amazement as the amethysts, or at least I assumed that’s what they were, that come into view surpass me in height and soon enough they span all the way from the ground to the ceiling.</p><p>As the blue orbs flies past those particularly huge crystals, I can see blue currents run through them like lightning bolts, they are accompanied by an electric hum and crackle.</p><p>The blue orb slows down and then stops at the wall of amethysts that mark the end of the cave, suddenly an arc jumps between the two crystals closest to it, the loud buzzing makes me jump.</p><p>The arc spans a gap of about 6 feet and persists for several seconds,</p><p>My heart pounds in my chest as adrenalin surges through my body, I turn around and run back to Skaftá. “What the hell was that?”</p><p>She looks down to me and grins widely. <strong><em>“Magic.” </em></strong>Her voice sounds rather amused.</p><p>“Are you just messing with me now or are those magic crystals?” I ask her sceptically.</p><p><strong><em>“There are no such things as magic crystals, they are inanimate objects they can’t hold magic energy.” </em></strong>Her grin grows wider.</p><p>“So, you were messing with me.” I sigh and look over to the huge amethysts and the blue orb.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“It’s always fun to see your reaction to magic and that doesn’t make it easier to resist the urge.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>Her grin turns into a smile.</p><p>“I’ll never get used to it.” I say to myself still gazing off into the distance. “Just how much energy did that spell take? Generating arcs is no easy feat.”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“It did take quite a bit. I couldn’t give you any comparisons but it’s safe to say that such a spell would instantly kill you if you tried to cast it. It’s also probably the most energy intensive spell you’ve seen so far and likely the most impressive one you’ll ever see us use outside of life or death situations.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I nod solemnly. “And that arc could probably kill me instantly too, it reminds me of trains disconnecting from power lines.” <strong><em>“That’s probably the best comparison in terms of energy too.”</em></strong></p><p>She says as images of bright and loud arcs run through my head, as I try to get a grip on just how ridiculous what I just saw was.</p><p>Soon enough I give up trying to comprehend the magic abilities of dragons and resume admiring the beauty of the amethyst covered cavern in front of me.</p><p>I cautiously approach the larger crystals again, sadly I can’t get too close to the really big ones before they amethysts on the floor begin hurting my feet too much.</p><p>My eyes get stuck on my own reflection in one of taller crystals, I look myself up and down in this purple mirror for the first time in a long time. I had lost quite some weight as the slight tummy I had always had was almost entirely gone, my arms and legs appeared to be more muscular than previously but still nothing to write home about, my face too had lost all roundness making it look almost haggard, my breasts and rear look almost completely unchanged though, not that I cared particularly much about any of it.</p><p>Lastly, I take a closer look at my face, while it was hard to make out details in my reflection, I could tell not much had changed outside of some fat loss, my hair was still hanging halfway down my back though the amethyst gives it a violet colour rather than its natural copper brown.</p><p>With my curiosity satiated I turn around and make my way back to Skaftá once again, this time the orb of light follows me.</p><p>“This is such a cool place. I didn’t even know such a place could exist.” I stop about a dozen feet away from her and look up into her eyes. <strong><em>“I know, I was astounded too when I first found it. Sadly, it’s the only cool place in here other than the dripstone cave we came from.” </em></strong>Her eyes are still fixated on the gems behind me. “How did you find this place? It’s not exactly trivial from the looks of it.” I ask inquisitively.</p><p><strong><em>“When you are incubating eggs you get bored sooner or later, that’s why we try to take turns but sometimes there isn’t anything to do when you aren’t busy sitting on eggs so I took to exploring the cave we lived in, eventually coming across the lake and finding the passage over to this cave system in it, from there it was just a matter of walking around this place.” </em></strong>She looks down at me, but her eyes stare right through me, lost in her memories.</p><p>I listen eagerly to her recounting of exploring the cave while watching her mind fill with pictures, sounds and smells from when she was wandering through these same caverns on her own, only accompanied by the same blue orb that was lighting our way right now. While she used few words, I could still follow her every step with the help of those memories.</p><p>“That sounds incredibly risky, didn’t you worry about getting lost or stuck?” I ask her.</p><p><strong><em>“Not very much, in the end my memory is good enough to always know which turn I took when and where and if the ground gave way I could always free myself with magic or call for Scáthán.” </em></strong>She looks up and to the left, I follow her view but see nothing but grey rocks. <strong><em>“Talking about him, he has left to hunt more food, we better make our way back soon.”</em></strong></p><p>I remember that the two of them had a telepathic connection too and that at no point during her exploration was she truly alone.</p><p>She turns around slowly after taking one last look at the amethysts and starts making her way back, the blue orb follows her, soon I find myself in near complete darkness.</p><p><strong><em>“Aren’t you going to follow?” </em></strong>Her voice sounds slightly fainter than usual thanks to the distance between the two of us. I hadn’t even realized that she had left at that point and quickly jog after her as I try to fight down the fear of being alone in this completely isolated cave.</p><p>I follow the dim glow of the orb shining around one of the many corners and soon I can make out her shape against the abyssal darkness. The worry and fear that had overcome me fade quickly once I can see her scales again, she looks over her shoulder at me with worry in her eyes.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Are you alright? What kept you back there for so long?” </em> </strong>
</p><p>I shrug not being able to find words for what I was feeling back there, the closest description I could give was that my mind wasn’t in my body anymore, like it was floating through the cave on its own. <strong><em>“Seems like your mind was beginning to wander off, be careful with that. Remember that once it strays too far from your body, you will die. I’ll have to keep a closer eye on what your mind does in the future, I forgot you aren’t able to control it just yet.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly, they had put great emphasis on being careful with letting my mind wander, back then I didn’t really know what they meant and didn’t ask because I figured it wouldn’t matter.</p><p>A moment later she begins to walk onwards again, this time I make sure to stay as close to her side as I can.</p><p>We march through the vast caverns in complete silence again, it’s quite eerie and I find myself relaxing visibly when the air grows more humid and the fog returns.</p><p>Soon after the fog begins wafting around us, we stand at the edge of the lake again, Skaftá looks at me and says. <strong><em>“Just hold onto my tail this time, I’ll make sure you won’t get burnt.” </em></strong>Her eyes glow for a few seconds, then she walks off into the water.</p><p>I make haste to follow her and as soon as I step into the water, I notice that it doesn’t make proper contact with my skin, I can still feel the heat of it, but my skin stays dry.</p><p>Once the water reaches my hips I grab onto her tail and just let her drag me along, soon enough she dives down.</p><p>As the water envelops me it feels like I’m in a sauna that keeps getting warmer as we get deeper.</p><p>I’m clinging to her tail with my arms and legs tightly wrapped around it hoping to not lose my grip as she shoots through the water like a bullet using her wings much like she would if she were flying just decreased frequency and keeping them at angle to push the water behind her.</p><p>Unlike previously it barely takes her a minute to cover the entire distance from one lake to another.</p><p>I only let go off her tail once I can see the border of the lake, at this point I’m easily able to stand in the water and walk the last bit.</p><p>Once my feet touch dry, or well mostly dry, ground again I touch my left forearm, it’s completely dry, Skaftás spell must have kept the water from touching me.</p><p>Looking over to her I notice that she too has stayed completely dry.</p><p>I quickly grab my fresh clothes and begin to put them on, only to realize that they had grown damp in the time we had been gone. I curse myself for forgetting and reluctantly continue to put them on, as I’m buttoning up my jeans, I remember that I had left my old unsalvageable clothes around here too. I spot them not too far off to the left haphazardly thrown onto a moss-covered rock. Much to my surprise nature had already claimed them, algae were growing in the fabric turning it dark green, it wouldn’t be long until they completely disappeared. After I put on my shirt, I remember that Skaftá had dried me off last time I had a bath, so I turn and look at her with hopeful eyes.</p><p>She had been staring off into the distance again and when she notices that I’m looking at her she turns her head to face me, smiles warmly and then her eyes begin to glow oh so faintly.</p><p>I can feel my clothes warm up a little and quickly dry up, the entire process doesn’t take longer than a dozen or so seconds. When they are all dry, I thank her and we both begin to make our way back.</p><p>By now I had become sort of familiar with the way leading back to the nest and I find myself not relying on Skaftá too much to find my way.</p><p>Once we turn the last corner my eyes immediately fall onto the 3 eggs, one red, one dark green and one mud brown. It was an odd sight to see them just lying there, no one around to protect them or keep them warm.</p><p>As the two of us meander over, the red egg twitches lightly then starts wiggling. I stop to watch it from the edge of the nest while Skaftá approaches it and gently nudges it with the tip of her snout.</p><p>The egg stops moving almost immediately after being poked, she then lies down on top of them to keep them warm.</p><p>I climb into the nest too and sit down on the opposite of her. “What was that? Was it trying to hatch?” She nods happily. <strong><em>“He wants out, but I didn’t let him just yet.” </em></strong>After she curled up, she continues. <strong><em>“All three of them are very close to hatching but we don’t let them just yet because we need to move and since they couldn’t fly it would just make everything unnecessarily difficult.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly. “But how do you <em>“tell”</em> them to not hatch? Do you just use your telepathic connection to them to do so?” She smiles and nods again. <strong><em>“You’re close to the real answer. It’s a combination of physical contact and telepathy, that’s why I nudged the egg. If I were to just tell him to not, he may not obey.” </em></strong> A light laugh escapes my lips. “Aren’t children fun, feels like they cause nothing but trouble.” Skaftá laughs too. <strong><em>“Luckily our offspring are a lot less trouble than yours, they can do almost everything they need to survive as soon as they hatch.” </em></strong>“I saw some of that in Scátháns memories, if only human babies could do half of that.” I sigh as memories of the babies I had seen in my lifetime appear in my memory and how none of them are positive in the slightest.</p><p><strong><em>“Well it’s not all roses and sunshine for us either, it’s no fun having to sit on eggs for two years, even if you take turns with your partner it gets old quick.” </em></strong>I feel her happiness flow into my consciousness as she thinks about finally being free to fly and explore again.</p><p>“It does sound like a proper pain for sure, you must have been bored out of your mind.” She nods and an endless stream of memories that just show her sitting in a cave on top of the same three eggs at all times of the day, sometimes Scáthán comes in and takes over but for the most part it’s just her.</p><p>“How did you split egg sitting? Your memories imply that you did most of it.” Her eyes widen and she seems rather surprised. <strong><em>“Did you just look into my memories?”</em></strong> I shrug as it didn’t feel like anything special. “I think I did? It happens sometimes when I try to see what you are feeling.”</p><p>She lifts her head off the ground and tilts it slightly. <strong><em>“You just did it naturally? Scáthán didn’t show you?” </em></strong>I nod silently. <strong><em>“You must have quite a talent then, we didn’t open up your mind to communicate with others yet so you must have done it yourself.” </em></strong>I can feel her eyes bore into me without even looking at her. “What do you mean?” I ask innocuously. <strong><em>“I had opened up your mind to communicate with us, but it only allowed for you to communicate with us not with anything that didn’t form a connection with you first. Basically, it means only we could communicate with you, you couldn’t form a telepathic bond with any other beings. A side effect of that is that as long as we aren’t actively trying to communicate with you, you shouldn’t be able to see what is going on in our heads.” </em></strong>Her presence in my consciousness grows quickly and I can feel her rummage around the outskirts of my mind as if she’s looking for something. Soon though she retreats back into her own body again. <strong><em>“Interesting, you did indeed manage to open up your own mind to communicate with others. Did you actively try to do so?” </em></strong>I take a moment to respond. “Not that I can remember… Also, what does it mean? How does having my mind open to communicate with others through telepathy affect me?”</p><p><strong><em>“You can now sense the minds of other complex life around you if you look for it, you can also use telepathy to communicate with them though it may require some force to open your target up to it.” </em></strong>Deep furrows form on my forehead as I think about it. “How come I am not feeling anyone around me right now other than you? Come to think of it I never felt anyone’s mind but yours and Scátháns.”</p><p><strong><em>“It’s an active process, you’ll need to detach your mind from your body and wander close to whatever you want to make contact with, also the “smaller” the mind of the being you want to contact the closer you’ll need to get.” </em></strong>As she speaks to me, I can sense her thoughts racing in the back of her mind, what she is thinking about I cannot discern.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Well now that your mind is open to all communication, it’s for the best we begin showing you how to use it. Originally we wanted to wait a bit longer to not overwhelm you but now you run the risk of wandering off too far.” </em> </strong>
</p><p>I nod slowly. “Well then let’s get to it, what exactly do I need to do?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“First you need to not focus on anything and just let your mind be free to explore itself, much like you would if you were daydreaming.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I close my eyes, take a deep breath and then gaze off into the sky, at first my mind keeps directing my attention at every oh so minute detail but eventually I manage to enter a state where my sight turns blurry as my eyes lose focus.</p><p>Soon I find my mind wandering, exploring my own memories, just like it did down in the amethyst cave. Suddenly my mind feels a gentle push, it’s a difficult to describe feeling, it feels like everything around me is moving but my senses tell me I haven’t moved an inch.</p><p>Again, I find my mind floating around the cave, everything looks blurry and any attempts at trying to see more clearly prove to be pointless. After a short period of time I, instead of trying to see clearly, “look” around. Everything still is a blurry mess with no clear outline but as my view passes Skaftás head I notice a blueish blob of undefinable shape floating near her head, it moves slowly and the surface of it constantly changes. As I concentrate on that blob, I notice a threadlike tendril-esque structure growing into my field of view, its colour similar to that of my hair. Instead of trying to discern the shape of that weird floating blob I look for the source of the tendril and weirdly enough, as I follow it backwards, I find it disappearing inside “me”. I couldn’t actually see what “me” was in this ethereal state, hell I couldn’t even tell where “me” began and ended, it just felt like this tendril was coming out of me. I return my attention to the blob and notice that the tendril had retracted quite a bit but as I turn my attention to the floating orb it again begins to grow until it eventually makes contact with it. As soon as it touches the surface of the blob, it tremors and the colour of the branch changes from copper brown to a mix of the blob and my colour and suddenly I can feel Skaftás presence again, which until then I hadn’t realized, disappeared from my consciousness as soon as I entered this zoned out state.</p><p>I can feel happiness flowing through the tendril that connects Skaftá and me into my mind, she seems proud of me, almost elated. I focus more on her feelings and thoughts and can see the tendril grow in diameter. its growth seems proportional to the level of detail with which I can observe her mind.</p><p>As I watch her thoughts, I notice that one of them appears to be an instruction for what to do next.</p><p>She was telling me to now try and look for smaller beings but to not make contact with them just yet. I take my “gaze” off her and look around for other similar blobs, at first, I find nothing but then I remember the eggs and how they are close to hatching thus they have to contain at least semi sentient beings.</p><p>It takes me a while to find them as Skaftás mind somehow distracts me, making my attention return to it. Finally, I spot three smaller blobs under her, two of them are about the same in size, one of them dark green like pine needles and one brown like mud. The third one is quite a bit larger and ruby red. From their general position it seems as though the colours of the blobs relate to the colour of the egg. Again, a branching tendril had begun to grow while I was looking the minds of the baby dragons, I quickly return my attention to Skaftá before the tendril makes contact.</p><p>Much to my surprise her mind had moved to be right behind me, it takes up my entire field of view, when I turn to see just how close she is I notice that her mind had fully engulfed mine. With my mind inside hers I can suddenly feel and see her every thought as if they were mine, the same goes for her, our minds now think and feel like one, with either of us being able to control it as long as our intentions were similar. After a while she lets go off my mind again and slowly our thoughts and feelings separate however a connecting thread persists between our minds.</p><p><strong><em>“That’s enough for now, we’ll continue at a later time.” </em></strong>As she tells me this the connection between us pulses, growing every time she speaks a word, then contracting during the pauses.</p><p>I try to make myself snap out of my trance like state, but nothing works, my sight stays blurry and I can still see Skaftás mind. Panic begins to rise in me, did I just get stuck like this? Isn’t this what they warned me about? Luckily, before I get to worry too much Skaftá nudges me, making me almost fall over, that is finally enough to my mind snap back into my body.</p><p><strong><em>“There we go, welcome back Arya.” </em></strong>Her happy voice makes me calm down quickly.</p><p>I blink rapidly to make my sight clear again and then look over to her. “That was scary, what was happening just now?”</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“You just had a literal out of body experience and you were aware of it. This is what your mind’s eye sees.”</em> </strong>
</p><p>I can only nod as I’m still awestruck by what I had just witnessed.</p><p><strong><em>“I see that you have questions, once you feel ready just ask.” </em></strong>She offers me a patient smile and rests her head on the floor not too far away from me with her eyes fixated on me.</p><p>After a short moment I manage to speak again.” So those blobs…I assume those were your and the baby dragons’ minds? Does my mind look like that too? What was the deal with those tendrils? I know they serve as a link between our minds if they make contact but what are they made off? When you first made contact with me did it work the same way? How do you read thoughts without having a telepathic connection? Do I have to go through the same process every time I want to make a connection with anyone? Why did you not want me to make contact with the eggs? Why did I not see the minds of any other beings around us, surely there must be more than the 4 of us? Why did you disappear from my consciousness? How is the colour of one’s mind determined? Will it ever get easier to “open my mind’s eye” and what can I do to go back to reality again if you aren’t around to nudge me?” Skaftá makes laughing like grumbling noise. <strong><em>“Not holding back, now are we?” </em></strong>She shifts around a little and then continues. <strong><em>“Yes, those blobs you saw, those were mine and my offspring minds and yes yours looked the same just with a different colour. How said colour is determined I am unsure of, but it never changes.” </em></strong>She takes a short break as she seems to dig around her memories. <strong><em>“Now those tendrils you saw, they are extensions of your mind, kind of like fingers, what they are made of I have no clue either. Back when I first made contact with you, I had to use some force to get through to you but that is best shown by letting you see it.” </em></strong>I feel my mind getting sucked into hers again, it feels just like it did when Scáthán took me into his. Everything fades to white and then the white is slowly replaced by a blurry version of the cave at night. In front of me lies a blob not too different in size to those off the baby dragons, but its colour is that of my hair. Slowly a thin tendril expands out to it but when it is supposed to make contact it hits an invisible barrier. Even though there is no direct contact I can still feel thoughts and memories that may just be my own flow into Skaftás mind. The tendril begins spreading out trying to find a way around the barrier and soon it has covered the entire blob in a branching network of light blue lines. The lines begin to grow thicker and contract trying to shatter the barrier. At first it seems like nothing is going to happen but then suddenly the barrier breaks and blob splits into a dozen or so pieces. The memory fades to black and I find myself back in my own body.</p><p><strong><em>“Every being that isn’t a dragon has this barrier around their mind, sometimes there is a hole in it that I can slip through, but you didn’t have any thus I had to break it, which as you can see broke your mind too. While the barrier blocks any direct communication, I can still see your thoughts, think of it like a one-way mirror, I can see you, but you can’t see me.” </em></strong>She blinks once, slowly and for the first time since she started talking. <strong><em>“You will have to go through a similar process every time you make a new connection, but it does get easier over time, luckily once you made a connection it stays until you willingly separate it. That’s also why I disappeared from your consciousness when you zoned out, I had cut the connection between us to see how quickly you’ll figure out how things work.” </em></strong>Again, she takes a short break to let me process all this new info. <strong><em>“You didn’t see any other beings around us because my mind outshines almost all of them. In this regard you can think of minds like stars, some are more radiant than others and if you have a very bright one near you seeing the weaker ones becomes impossible. So, while there certainly are critters around us you won’t be able to see their minds as long as I or Scáthán are around. </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>As to why I didn’t want you to make contact with my offspring, their minds are vastly different from mine and yours, I don’t want to risk you losing your sanity because of some unknown interaction between your and their minds. Lastly, opening your mind’s eye as you called it will get easier with training just like getting back into your body will, I’ll show you some techniques next time around but don’t worry about getting stuck in that state for ever if you are on your own. Once your bodies need become strong enough your mind will be forced back into it. That is as long as you don’t let your mind wander off too far.”</em></strong> She leaves me with a silence that is mine to fill with more questions.</p><p>Once I had mulled over all this info for a moment, I continue my barrage of questions. “So, what are minds made off? What is the deal with this ethereal plane where our minds exist? It seems like it is an almost perfect copy of this world. Why is a baby dragons mind so different from an adult`s? From what you told me they are essentially smaller versions of you. Why do you dragons not have this barrier around your minds? How do you severe a connection between two minds? What determines the size of one’s mind? Why can only dragons use their mind like this? Obviously, humans are capable too but until now I didn’t know this entire “dimension” existed.”</p><p>As I finally run out of questions to ask Skaftá again has an excited grin on her face.</p><p><strong><em>“I have a feeling the plane of existence that your mind lives in is indeed directly linked to this one where our bodies reside, but what exactly it is about and if there is more to it than just our minds, I cannot tell you. It could also have something to do with one of the many quantum theories, supersymmetry and the extended standard model you humans came up with.” </em></strong>She gives me a short moment to think about what she just said then continues. <strong><em>“Your and my mind appear to be made of the same thing, nothing yet something, it could very well be just pure energy, it certainly has no strong physical structure as it can take any shape it wants, though it prefers to reside in a roughly spherical shape, phase through matter that is solid on the physical plane, yet it can’t increase or decrease it’s volume and two minds never mix fully to become one.</em></strong></p><p><strong><em>The only ways for a mind to grow are gaining memories, they seem to still take up “space” in your mind thus an older mind is bigger than a younger one and magic energy which is evidently stored in the mind too.” </em></strong>After another short interruption she carries on. <strong><em>“We dragons don’t have this barrier at birth because it would only be detrimental. We communicate only through telepathy thus having to break a youngling’s mind would just be unnecessary harm. However, we can form one if need be, which we commonly do when we get near strangers that may not be peaceful towards us. It’s another thing I will show you another time.</em></strong></p><p>
  <strong> <em>As to why you humans can’t use your minds like this, that is likely because of the barrier, as long as it exists your mind is stuck in your body, unable to move.</em> </strong>
</p><p><strong><em>Severing a connection is hard to describe, I would describe it as forcefully pulling the string linking two minds back in, but it is best I show you another time and lastly a baby dragons mind, while very similar to an adults mind in many ways still differs on a fundamental level, after all a teenagers brain still differs from an adults brain both in terms of structure and thought patters yet both can perform many of the same tasks.” </em></strong>Again, she falls silent, patiently awaiting any further questions from me.</p><p>I spend a couple minutes processing what was just said and then ask my last remaining question. “What is the barrier around one’s mind made of?”</p><p>Skaftá takes a moment to think about my question then shakes her head. <strong><em>“I have not an inkling of a clue, it just seems to act as a hard boundary for one’s mind.” </em></strong>She spends a while longer trying to come up with a better answer but eventually resigns.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s getting late and you had a very busy day, how about you move a little closer and get comfortable for now?” </em></strong>She lifts her wing as an invitation for me to rest by her side.</p><p>I gladly accept and get up to walk the couple of steps over to her, I rest my back against her side and then slowly slide down her scales until I sit on the floor with my knees up to my chin. I gaze off into the depths of the cave while she gently wraps her tail around me and moves head close to me.</p><p>As we sit there both unmoving lost in our worlds of thoughts and memories the sun approaches the horizon again and floods the cave with its orange light.</p><p>As the sunlight grows dimmer and dimmer, I remember that Scáthán had yet to return, instead of asking Skaftá I try to sense his mind. This time it feels very different, my sight doesn’t go blurry, but I can still sense the rough position of both Skaftá and the eggs under her belly without even seeing them.</p><p>I try to turn my attention towards the sky, or at least where I presume the sky to be.</p><p>Looking for even the faintest sign of another mind turns out to be harder than expected when you have a dragon lying next to you as her mind keeps drawing my attention to it like a light attracts moths.</p><p>At first my search proves fruitless and I almost want to give up but as I have nothing else to do, I continue. After what feels like hours, I can finally sense something in the far-off distance, I can’t tell much about it just that it has to be a dragon as everything else would be outshone by Skaftá.</p><p>I slowly get up and carefully push Skaftás tail off me, she watches me closely as I head out to the entrance of the cave. By now the sun had fully set and as I stand out there I see nothing but the starry sky with the moon hiding somewhere behind a mountain, I try to spot Scáthán who I assume the mind I just sensed belonged to but since his scales are black he stays completely invisible until he is only seconds away from arriving.</p><p>I quickly step aside as he comes flying towards the cave, he lands on his hind legs, then drops the remains of a cow he had been carrying in one paw on the floor so he can stand on that paw, next he quickly tucks away his wings and then lowers his head to face me. <strong><em>“What are you doing out here right now Arya?”</em></strong></p><p>I carefully pet the tip of his snout. “I had a hunch you would be back soon, so I wanted to be the welcoming squad.” He grins. <strong><em>“Don’t lie, I can read your thoughts remember.” </em></strong>After nudging me hard enough to make me almost fall over he hobbles on into the cave carrying one cow carcass with his left front paw and dragging the other one behind him. Once I catch my balance again, I follow him and mumble. “Well that was at least part of my intention.”</p><p>Skaftá had turned around while I had been waiting outside and happily takes dinner off of Scátháns paws. He stretches and then curls up on the opposite of Skaftá, while she greedily devours her dinner. By now I had grown so used to watching and listening to them shred their prey that I had developed a sort of morbid curiosity and find myself gawking as she swallows half a cow’s worth of bloody mush in one gulp only to grab the other half seconds later and repeat the process.</p><p>As she swallows again, we lock eyes, she freezes for a moment then slowly grabs the second cow, bites it in half and deliberately begins chewing, all the while watching me. <strong><em>“Not so scared anymore, now are we?” </em></strong>She says as she swallows with an audible gulp. Only then do I realize that I had been staring this entire time, quite obviously so too. “E-heh… Yes, I guess?” I say as my face turns red and I turn my eyes to look at the floor. <strong><em>“Hey, no need to be embarrassed, I don’t mind, if anything it’s a good thing.”</em></strong></p><p>“Maybe I’m starting to get used to it.” I look up again and see her and Scáthán smile happily.</p><p>In that moment the realization, that they have been taking care of me like one of them, hits me. How Skaftá had been taking care of my wounds if I got hurt, how she took me on an exploration trip, how she had taught me things no other human knew about, how Scáthán had taken me on a hunt with him, how he had shown me how flying feels like, how he too had been there to answer any questions I had and how both of them had kept we warm and safe during the night.</p><p>Tears of happiness fill my eyes and my legs turn into pudding. “T-thank you.” I stutter while I wipe the tears from my eyes only for them to come back in an instant. As I stagger over the Skaftás front leg she lowers her head to let me hug it instead. I wrap my arms around her snout tightly, or as I tightly as I can since my arms don’t fully make it around and let the tears flow free all the while sobbing thank yous. <strong><em>“No need to thank us, that’s what parents are there for.” </em></strong>Scátháns voice rings through my head as he gently nuzzles his head against my back. His words just make me cry harder, but while I was crying, I felt happy, relaxed and loved. While I previously had felt similar this time, I knew my eyes had finally fully been opened and that I had fully understood that I didn’t need to fear them. Time flies when you are ugly crying with happiness and after what felt like 5 minutes but was probably 30, I finally calm down. My tears had stopped flowing and once the sobs slow down Scáthán gives me a little space to remove myself from between their heads. I take a step aside with the intention to sit down between them, but I don’t make it that far before my legs give way and I fall to my knees. I didn’t know crying could be so exhausting. I carefully turn around and lie down, I can hear and feel how Scáthán and Skaftá shuffle around and soon they rest their heads right next to me. Slowly, I lift my hands and pet their heads, they both move their heads closer until I’m neatly sandwiched between them. I close my eyes and pay close attention to their presences within my head, both their minds radiate a contagious happiness, the smile on my face grows wider and I keep watching their thoughts for a little longer before passing out.</p><p>Hours pass where I just drift through nothingness in my dreams, endless darkness enveloping me. It doesn’t feel scary though, I find comfort in it actually.</p><p>Suddenly when I open my eyes after blinking, I find myself lying in a grass covered clearing, curled up into a ball. The suns light carries a strong red tint and appears extremely diffuse.</p><p>In the dim light I can just barely make out my surroundings but it doesn’t take long for me to realize that I look like a dragon again, the size and everything else is roughly consistent with last night but the scales that started appearing now cover my entire body, my hands and legs completely changed shape into paws and where my finger nails used to be I now sport foot long (30cm) claws.</p><p>It takes me a moment to get used to my new body and stand up, awkwardly I stumble and fumble around trying to figure out quadrupedal walking business. Repeatedly I accidentally jab the claws of my hind legs into the back of my front legs, fortunately the scales hold and prevent me from stabbing myself. I wish I could just be flying already, it made movement so much easier yesterday.</p><p>After a long struggle though I manage to kind of figure out how to do it and for the first time stop to take in my surroundings. I’m surrounded by trees that I would consider huge in the real world, they must be at least a hundred feet(30m) tall but in my current state they look much more normal, I could probably even stick my head out of the treetops if I stood up on my back legs. The air feels humid and hot, like breathing in steam and the ground feels damp and soft, with every step I take I sink in a little. Veins hang off the lower branches, reaching all the way to the ground, making navigation difficult, the easiest thing to do would probably be taking flight. I walk a couple rounds around the perimeter of the clearing in the hopes of finding out more about my surroundings or spotting a trail made by animals but no such luck. I decide to test my luck and try to make my way through the trees, it looks like I could squeeze myself through if I tried.</p><p>I take a first step between the trees and at first everything looks fine, while it’s a tight fit and my scales tear the bark off the trees to my left and right I can make it through the first row with little issue, what I forgot to consider is that as I got further into the forest the trees grow denser, by the time I’m trying to squeeze myself through the fourth or fifth row of trees I find myself nearly getting stuck and only making it through by pushing one of the trees aside, nearly uprooting it in the process. This wasn’t working and I better turn back before I get stuck.</p><p>Turning around already proves much more difficult than I expected, my ability to move left and right is greatly restricted and going backwards proves even more difficult as no matter where I look my view is obfuscated by veins. Growing increasingly frustrated I growl loudly and snap after the ones that dangle in my face. My teeth cleanly sever them, and a horrible bitter taste fills my mouth. Disgusted, I spit them out retch a couple times as the taste lingers. With enough saliva the awful flavour eventually fades enough so that I can focus on getting back to the clearing again.</p><p>I manage to get dig my hind claws into a tree and push my rear into another one, if I could topple one of them, I’d be able to turn easily. The bark easily gives way and the wood splinters as my talons dig into it, the other tree groans as I push myself into it as hard as I can. Since they are much bigger than the previous one, they don’t budge at all.</p><p>Slowly, oh so slowly, I can feel both of them give way. My back hurts, a stinging pain that drowns out anything else, but I power through it, I can’t give up, I’m so close.</p><p>With a cascade of cracking, tearing and rumbling both trees topple simultaneously, flinging dirt everywhere as their roots break out of the ground and throwing me off balance in the process.</p><p>A cacophony of snapping and splintering noises accompanies them as they shred through the other trees on their way down before they hit the ground with a dull thud, then the forest falls quiet again.</p><p>In the moments after the impact I notice just how quiet the forest is, no birds are chirping, no critters scuttle through the underwood, not even a light breeze rustles through the leaves, only utter silence fills the air.</p><p>I don’t think too much of it though, previous dreams have been too quiet as well, instead I turn around, stepping over the tree carcasses and raise my head up far enough to see through the curtain of veins. From here I’ll only need to head in a straight line to get back to the clearing, luckily, it’s only a couple hundred feet (60-90m). Just like the way out, the way back takes me a while as I need to carefully climb through the trees to not get stuck. After what feels like an hour of struggling through the dense forest, I finally manage to stick my head through the leaves and veins into the clearing, quickly I claw my way through the last bit and stumble onto the clearing. I swear myself to never try going through the forest ever again.</p><p>I look up at the sky and try to calculate whether I could jump and take flight or not.</p><p>Unfortunately, though I don’t get to ponder for long as suddenly a huge, dragon shaped shade appears above me and lands hard on the other side of the clearing. The ground shakes as the blue scaled dragon hits the dirt with an audible squishing sound, the colour of its scales reminds me of someone, but why is she in my dreams? The dragon quickly turns to face me and when we lock eyes it becomes obvious that it is Skaftá who stands before me.</p><p>We both tilt our heads in confused unison, clearly, she too wonders why we’re in the same dream.</p><p>“Am I in your dream or are you in mine?” I ask, but only grumbling and growling leaves my mouth. <strong><em>“I was going to ask, what are you doing in our dream?” </em></strong>She speaks to me like usual, through our telepathic connection that apparently persists even when we sleep. <em>“Our?”</em> This time I don’t bother to speak the words out loud. <strong><em>“Scáthán and mine, we share a dream world, though I don’t know how you ended up here.” </em></strong>She sounds just as confused as me.</p><p>Skaftá approaches me cautiously and once she’s close enough she lifts one paw and carefully brushes it against the side of my head, as if to check if I was real.</p><p>I force myself to hold still, I want to duck because even now that I’m much larger as a dragon, she still towers over me by a factor of two. Much to my surprise her touch is incredibly gently, like the loving touch of a mother, caressing her daughter’s cheek.</p><p>She lowers her paw again and shakes her head. <strong><em>“This shouldn’t happen but no matter, now you’re here” </em></strong>She steps back a little. <strong><em>“When did you turn into a dragon anyway? Also did you figure out how to fly yet?”</em></strong></p><p><em>“Well, it’s been gradual over the past few nights, I thought you’d know because you read my mind all the time.” </em>Her not knowing surprises me a lot, so far, they always knew more about myself than I did. <strong><em>“We do but we never dig deep into your newer memories because we don’t expect to find anything new, we spent that time with you. I never expected your dreams to turn out like this. Thus, we don’t know.” </em></strong>She prances around me inspecting my new body. <em>“Oh, makes sense though. And yes, I’ve figured out how to fly, that was one of the first things actually.” </em></p><p>Even in my dreams I can feel her sift through my memories looking for the dreams of the last few days. <strong><em>“Interesting…” </em></strong>She trails off for a moment, lost in her thoughts. <strong><em>“Anyway, now that you’re here, what shall we do?” </em></strong>She stops in front of me and stares down at me expectantly. <em>“Is this kind of like a lucid dream then? Where we are in control? Also, you mentioned that you and Scáthán share this world. Does that mean the two of you always dream together in a way?” </em>I feel incredibly excited, maybe I could actually not hold them back, maybe I could actually be useful and maybe I could actually keep up with them now that I have a better body.</p><p><strong><em>“It is, kind of, we can will things into existence but can’t change the way this world looks, for example this will always be a tropical forest. Yes, he’s here too, though we usually prefer to our own ways.” </em></strong>She senses my excitement and looks skyward. <strong><em>“No matter, let’s go somewhere more interesting.” </em></strong>With one swift jump she lifts herself into the air and spreads her wings. Within seconds she’s circling around the clearing way above the canopy.</p><p>My eyes dart about the clearing and surrounding forest looking for the best way to take off. A running start is out of the question, there simply isn’t a long enough straight path. I’ll have to jump like she did. My heart quickens, I’ve never even tried or even considered that, it seems utterly impossible, yet I just saw her do it so I should be able to too.</p><p>The muscles in my hind legs tense as I prepare to take off. The air feels quiet enough, I won’t have to worry about side winds much, though there’s always the possibility of a sudden breeze. Finally, I feel like the right moment comes and I unleash all the tension in my legs. I catapult myself straight into the air like a cat, spreading my wings as my hind paws leave the grass. Apparently, my legs are much stronger now that I became a dragon, I manage to fling my body over a dozen feet (4m) off the ground before I even feel like I’m losing momentum. With a couple heavy flaps of my wings I stabilize my ascent and soon clear the tree tops to join Skaftá. She gives me a commendatory nod and then leans right to head off towards the horizon. Now that I’m up in the air too movement feels so much easier, nothing can get in my way now, no trees to get stuck between and no veins to block my view. Hastily, I follow her as she already gained a couple hundred feet on me, her larger wings allow her to fly much faster than I do, or maybe I’m just not too good at flying.</p><p>Occasionally she looks back to me and adjusts her pace, so I don’t fall behind too much. Eventually the two of us synch up and keep a steady distance between us, for the first time I take the time to look around me. The sun stands high in the immaculate blue sky, shining her scorching rays down mercilessly, below us lies a rainforest so dense that I can’t even see past the first layer of leaves, the forest stretches till the horizon in every direction. I wonder where we are going, it doesn’t look like our surroundings are going to change any time soon, or is Scáthán on his way towards us too and we are going to meet up in the middle?</p><p>As if to answer my unasked questions the air around us grows blurry until all I can make out is azure blue and leaf green, then the colours begin to shift. The blue that was once the sky turns grey with white dots strewn throughout and the green grows darker until it reaches a pine green tone. Near the horizon the tone changes even more to the murky green of an inland lake. Finally, the blur fades and we appear to be flying over a pine forest in a polar region during summer, approaching a huge lake. The sun feels much less like it’s trying to cook us alive, it’s more on the level of a weak infrared lamp, which I greatly appreciate. Before I can ask any questions Skaftá quickly descends and when my eyes follow her, I notice that the lake approached much faster than I thought it would.</p><p>Skaftá quickly covers the distance to the lakeshore and swiftly lands in the sand, tucking in her wings as her paws make contact with the ground.</p><p>In a dismal attempt to make it to the shore too I turn my head straight downwards. This proves to be a huge mistake, inertia makes my rear overtake my front and I suddenly find myself spinning, unable to control my fall anymore. Is squirm and struggle in an attempt to regain control but just like last time I lost control, nothing I do helps, if anything I just make it worse.</p><p>My struggles aren’t for long and I smash into the lake face first seconds later. The last bit of orientation that I had is lost the moment I hit the water and thanks to the angle of my impact I end up deep under water. Panicked, I look around trying to make out where up and down is but the flurry of bubbles surrounding me refracts the light so much, I can’t see anything. Due to the sudden impact I had already lost most of my breath in the first few seconds and was now running low on oxygen and with my lungs largely empty there isn’t enough air in me to make buoyant anymore either. I’m almost ready to just surrender to fate and let the water claim me when I feel something, someone, nudge me up, or is it down? I couldn’t tell</p><p>Something keeps pushing into my back again and again, and every time I move a little further.</p><p>Eventually the storm of bubbles surrounding me dies down and I can see where I’m headed. Towards a diffuse shine coming from above.</p><p>I flip myself around and swim as quickly as my paws will let me towards the light in the hope to escape the water. The water parts over my nostrils and I disparately take in fresh air, as my lungs fill with oxygen my body becomes buoyant again and I don’t need to keep paddling to stay afloat.</p><p>Split seconds later Scáthán pokes his head out of the water next to me, the rest of his body following it, just like a duck returning from a dive. He’s just a tremendous as I remember him, his scales shimmering slightly in the early evening sun. <strong><em>“You know how to make quite the entry don’t you.” </em></strong>He looks down at me with a wide smile on his face. <strong><em>“Good thing I was there otherwise you would have drowned…not that it would have mattered luckily.” </em></strong>His eyes twitch left and right as he scans me. <strong><em>“Say, what happened to you? Last time I remember you looking…different.”</em></strong></p><p>Skaftá interjects while I still try to collect my thoughts. <strong><em>“She went through some form of transformation in her last few dreams, not entirely sure why but it shouldn’t affect her in the real world.”</em></strong> He s</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em>“How the hell did we get here so fast? Why does it feel so real even though it’s supposedly a dream?” </em>Finally, I manage to form coherent thoughts again. The impact left me dazed and with a headache, trying to make sense of this world also doesn’t help alleviate it. <strong><em>“It feels so real because your mind is playing tricks on you, think of it like a lucid dream. Still, this is very much still a dream, even if it doesn’t look or feel like it. Since this is merely a dream, we can manipulate it within reason, affecting the looks of things or our position within this dream world are two things possible. What you just saw before crashing into the lake is me “moving” us to this lake. I don’t know if you can do it too. You being a human might affect it.” </em></strong>Skaftá answers nearly immediately.</p><p>It still doesn’t entirely make sense to me, why did I end up in their dream world to begin with? Is it somehow connected to me turning into a dragon? Will this happen every night now?</p><p>The mess of questions looking for answers is disrupted when Scáthán gently nudges me. <strong><em>“How about you get to the shore first and lie down? You’re still dazed from the impact and I wouldn’t want you losing your consciousness out here.” </em></strong>I nod and begin to slowly paddle to the lake side.</p><p>Seeing how pathetically slow I am as I feebly try to swim, Scáthán takes pity on me and dives under me, then let’s himself rise to the surface so that I end up on his back. At first, I don’t notice what’s happening and panic for a moment when I get lifted out of the water before I realize that I’m on my father’s back. He turns his head and smiles. <strong><em>“I couldn’t watch you struggle anymore, let me take you to shore.” </em></strong>Scáthán manages to bring both of us ashore in under a minute, once he can walk on the muddy lake floor, he tilts his body to the side a little to make me slide off.</p><p>From there I manage to make my way to the grass that lines the edge of this lake. The moment I’m fully out of the water I realize just how dazed I still am. Even when standing still everything around me feels like it’s moving, it didn’t feel that bad when I was still in the water, likely because I chalked it up to the waves moving me around but looking back at the lake, I realize that the small ripples on its surface are much too small.</p><p>Just barely, I manage to lie down before I fall over my own feet. I can’t even keep my head up as it spins too much and it always feels like I’m going to hit something any moment, but even with my head down I still feel just like I did moments before I crashed into the lake. Skaftá and Scáthán stand around me, looking down at me with worry in their eyes.</p><p>Eventually the dizziness begins to fade, and I try to stand up, while my legs still shake at least I don’t sway left and right anymore. A quick shake of my head eases the headache enough to make it bearable and the world has almost entirely stopped spinning.</p><p>My eyes move from Scáthán to Skaftá and back forcing a weak smile on my face I ask. <em>“So, what now? I think I recovered enough.” </em></p><p>Both of them smile back, it’s clear as day that they know I’m just trying to act tough. <strong><em>“Well you being here changes things…For now I’ll take you with me.” </em></strong>Skaftá answers me first and Scáthán nods in agreement. <strong><em>“You found her. You get to keep her.” </em></strong>He adds jokingly.</p><p>Skaftá flashes her teeth at him then shakes her head a little before playfully ramming her shoulder into his. <strong><em>“Way to talk about your daughter.” </em></strong>With that she turns away from him, looks down at me and then nods her head away from the lake. We both flounce away from Scáthán, who just stands there looking after us slightly dumbfounded by our reaction, though it doesn’t take him long to hop back into the lake and disappear into the murky depths again. <em>“So, what do you two “dream” off if you always spend your nights in this world? Or is this just like a continuation of the real world where some laws of nature don’t apply? Also is this an exact copy of the real world? It certainly looks like it.” </em>As we meander through the grassland surrounding the lake. <strong><em>“This world is indeed an almost exact copy of the real world. It’s entirely based on our memories. That means we can go anywhere we have memories of, we technically don’t have to physically see the place, any memory does the job.” </em></strong>She pauses for a moment, seemingly trying to remember something. <strong><em>“As for our dreams, your guess with them being a slightly different version of day to day life is true. I mostly use this world to explore places I haven’t been to in a while. That’s why I found you in the Amazonas rainforest. Scáthán on the other hand uses the nights to swim, he loves water more than some fish I feel.” </em></strong>She suddenly stops dead in her tracks. I walk on for a little before realizing she stopped. <strong><em>“Anyway, how about we do something useful with your time here and put your newfound body to good use.” </em></strong>A scheming grin grows on her face. <strong><em>“Since you say you want to feel useful constantly, why don’t you come help me hunt? Now that your body won’t hold you back anymore. See how much you actually enjoy it.”</em></strong></p><p>At first excitement fills me, even if it isn’t real, I can still show that I can be helpful, that I’m willing to help but then I slowly grow anxious. Hunting means killing and with her grin I’m not sure what exactly we would be hunting. I nod nonetheless and she turns slightly left and continues onwards with quiet steps. After a moment of hesitation, I remind myself that this is not real again and sneak after her, trying to not make a sound either.</p><p><strong><em>“Just watch for now.” </em></strong>She whispers to me with a nearly inaudible voice, I can feel her mind focusing on just one thing, and that is the tracks of a herd of prey. Why she whispered remains a mystery to me, it’s not like anyone could hear what is said through our telepathic connection.</p><p>We quickly make our way across the grassy plains, still somehow, she manages to not make a single sound with her steps. I try my best to follow her example but never quite manage to imitate her.</p><p>Soon the trees that were growing sparingly before growing denser, that’s when I too notice the scent of wild animals lingering in the air. Suddenly Skaftá stops and lowers her head, I can see her preparing to pounce, her tail twitching left and right in excitement. I try to look past her to see what she found, the smell makes me think it’s something like a deer or boars. I only get to catch a short glimpse of the spotted fur of about a dozen, mostly younger deer grazing on a meadow before she leaps forward, claws outstretched, ready to tear her victims to pieces.</p><p>She manages to get about half of them just as she leaps forward, one she catches with her jaws, two with her claws, another one with her tail and two more get crushed underneath her, the rest of the herd takes off running all directions. I stand there frozen in awe at how she just did all of this in one fluid motion.</p><p>Skaftá lifts her head, her prey still dangling from her mouth and looks at me, her pupils are wider than ever, almost filling her eyes entirely. <strong><em>“GO GET THEM.” </em></strong>Her voice roars through my head, loud enough to paralyze my thoughts for a moment.</p><p>As soon as I snap out of it, I take off full speed, I don’t think about where I’m going or that I’m making way too much noise, all reservations I had about hunting are suddenly gone too. All I care about now is catching up with those deer.</p><p>After a couple seconds I realize that just running in any direction isn’t going to get me far, I should probably do what Skaftá showed me. I slow down just a little and catch a good whiff of the air, I can smell the panic those animals felt, and their scent is still strong and fresh. Turning my head left and right, smelling the air each time, I quickly figure out where it’s the strongest and speed up in that direction.</p><p>Even running as fast as my paws will carry me it takes me a while to catch up, at first, I begin to doubt that I’m even going in the right direction but finally I spot some tracks that looks suspiciously like animals ran through here. Soon after I see what looks like a brown blob running away from me, I try to turn but my paws just slip on the grass, leaving brown streaks or soil in their wake. My heart sinks as I realize that I’m too fast and heavy to turn easily, or even at all. Panicking, I look around for a way to stop but nothing comes to mind, then suddenly in a stroke of genius I realize I could try to use one of the trees to turn.</p><p>Conveniently there is one coming right up, I jump towards it, turning my rear towards it as I fly through the air. My paws make contact with it and I immediately push off of it, my paws begin to slip as the bark gives way, instinctively I dig my claws into the wood, the easily catch and keep me from slipping any further. Though, I regret my decision split seconds later as my claws stay stuck in the wood and when they tear out if feels like someone is trying to rip out my nails. I grimace but try my best to power through the agony and keep going. Every time I put any weight onto my hind paws, I wince a little but still I manage to maintain full speed and quickly close the gap to my victims.</p><p>The herd must have reformed in the time I was catching up to them as I see the half a dozen that survived running in a tight pack, perfect for me to take down. They try to run in a zig-zag pattern to confuse me, but I know what they are trying to do so I just keep going straight. As I close in one them the entire pack tries to turn right to get away from me but for two of them it’s already too late.</p><p>I sweep them off their legs with ease. Their thin legs break as they crash into the ground and they fail to get back up, but I’m not satisfied yet. I don’t slow down and keep up my pursuit but by now I’m starting to feel exhausted.</p><p>In a last-ditch effort to catch them I jump forward, two of the deer turn and leave my reach but the other two aren’t fast enough. I sink my claws into one and my teeth into the other. The disgusting taste of hot, fresh blood fills my mouth and I feel it seep out from between my teeth and drip off my jaw but at the same time I feel euphoric. I caught something. I am useful!</p><p>The deer that I’m holding in my jaws still struggles, trying to break free. With a quick shake of my head I snap its neck and several other bones, ending its suffering. When I look down, I see that the one I caught with my paw is still breathing too. I drop the carcass in my mouth and snap the poor things neck too. It’s the least I could do. While I could tell that Skaftá sometimes enjoyed letting her victims suffer, I didn’t. If I were in their place, I would probably wish for a quick death too.</p><p>As I’m dispatching of the last two, Skaftá catches up with me, carrying two dead deer in her mouth and by the amount of gore and blood smeared on her head I can tell she ate the other four she caught.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. New World</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sadly, I’m awoken way too early by Scáthán removing his head from underneath my arm and heading out to the caves entrance. I sit up, still slightly dazed from just waking up and mumble. “What’s the matter?”</p><p><strong><em>“I have a hunch today will be the day we move.” </em></strong>His voice vibrates with excitement.</p><p>Skaftás eyes pop open and she yawns widely. <strong><em>“You mentioned that yesterday dear. I assume your predictions were spot on again?” </em></strong>He takes a while to answer, sadly I can’t see what he’s doing because Skaftás body blocks my view of the entrance.</p><p><strong><em>“Almost, air pressure is a bit higher than expected and the wind is a bit slower but otherwise it’s like I thought it would be.” </em></strong>He returns to the nest but doesn’t lie down, instead he looks at me and Skaftá with expectant eyes.</p><p>She grins happily and slowly gets up. <strong><em>“Alright then, time to get going.” </em></strong>She stretches like a cat and shakes her entire body. “We’re just going to up and leave like that?” I ask, my eyes darting between them looking for an answer.</p><p>They both tilt their head slightly then nod. <strong><em>“Unless you want to stay a little longer…” </em></strong>Skaftá speaks gently as always.</p><p>“U-uhm no, I’m just taken a little aback by how sudden you two decided to up and leave.” I stutter, not entirely sure what to make of this.</p><p><strong><em>“Well there wasn’t anything to prepare and we did tell you previously that we may need to move soon.” </em></strong>Scáthán meanders over to the box of stuff he brought back for me and wraps it in his tail.</p><p>Skaftá lowers her head and inspects the eggs for a short moment, then opens her mouth just enough to pick up one of them, she lifts her head up just far enough so she can tilt it back and swallow the egg. My eyes grow wide as I watch her completely dumbfounded, I want to say something but words elude me as she proceeds to pick up the next egg and gulps it down too, I raise my index finger to interject something but when I want to open my mouth speech fails me and I just drop my hand again and close my mouth. She picks up the last egg and seconds later it disappears down her throat too, she turns her head to look at and smiles. <strong><em>“Don’t worry the eggs are robust enough to withstand this, it also helps with preventing them from getting too cold.” </em></strong></p><p>My brain still refuses to accept that she just ate her offspring but after a minute I nod slowly and decide to just pretend that that didn’t happen.</p><p><strong><em>“We’re ready then?” </em></strong>Scáthán looks over to us as he heads to the cave entrance</p><p>Skaftá nudges me. <strong><em>“Time to go.” </em></strong>At first I’m reluctant to get up but as I head outside together with her I realize that there isn’t anything keeping me here, I would have liked to spend more time in the depths of the cave but I’m sure we’ll find other cool places eventually, but outside of that the only thing that matters to me are the two of them.</p><p>As I stand there on the cliff, looking over the vast forest and endless blue sky I take a deep breath and close my eyes as I try to visualize all the wonders that lie out there in this world and they were all ours to discover and explore, I needn’t be confined to this tiny cave. I look up to them. “As ready as ever.” They both nod simultaneously, Skaftá wraps her tail around me and puts me onto Scátháns back, I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on tight.</p><p>He leaps forward off the cliff, quickly unfolds his wings and begins gliding along the mountainside, he doesn’t glide for long though, soon he begins flapping his wings to rapidly gain height.</p><p>I turn around just in time to see Skaftá leap off the mountain and spread her wings, she then flies a very similar path to us and quickly catches up to us. Once she’s only a couple yards behind Scáthán he lets go of the box which she swiftly catches with her front paws and then tucks it close to her chest. Scáthán slows down until they are flying right next to one another, the tips of their wings almost touching.</p><p>Gathering all the courage I have, I slowly, with shaking legs, try to stand up. I stretch my arms out to help me keep balance, I put one foot right in front of the other, then stand up to my full height.</p><p>My legs feel like jelly that is about to give way but somehow, I manage to stay standing and look ahead. Looking past Scátháns head I can see the vast forest quickly flying past us as we gradually rise up further into the nearly cloudless sky. I close my eyes and direct my attention at my parents’ minds, they are planning the route they would be taking today, pictures of immense grasslands, spiky sharp mountains and scorched deserts fly between their minds. They notice me watching and slow down their thoughts to a mere half of their former speed, I gratefully accept their change of pace. Now that I can more closely follow their “conversation “, for lack of a better word, I notice that what I just thought to be a stream of disarranged thoughts without any context had actually been them discussing where to go next. The grasslands were not too far away from here, I remember seeing them on maps in school and Skaftá had stayed there with her parents. <em>“But how could a family of dragons stay hidden in nothing but knee-high grass?” </em>I push the memory aside for later and return my focus to their minds. The pointy mountains, while unwelcoming and harsh, had in the past served as shelter for the two of them and the immense forest was one of Scátháns favourite places to stay, plentiful in food and due to its tremendous the trees had grown large and sparse enough to allow him to traverse easily even now. By the time my thoughts return to their conversation they had already moved on to how the winds would act and how it would affect where they could fly to, it’s a much too complicated topic for me to come even close to understanding, all that I could make out is that today was an especially good day to be flying because the winds had been blowing perpendicular to the mountains creating updrafts but also some turbulences, then there was also a cold front approaching us, which was moving underneath the warmer air that we were currently flying through to create an upwind, that they would use to gain even more height.</p><p>After a bit more arguing about the effects of air pressure, time of the year, time of day and many other things on the winds, especially those higher up that they referred to as the “jet stream” they decide to go all out today and rise up all the way to over 25000 feet where they suspected extremely strong air currents which would allow them to cover over a thousand miles in just one day.</p><p>The thought of us soaring through the air at speeds in excess of 300 miles an hour with nothing but a hope and a prayer keeping me on Scátháns back makes me dizzy and I can feel my body beginning to sway left and right as I lose balance. I try to keep steady but, in the end, just make it worse, my heart races as panic fills my mind. I can already feel myself toppling over and falling when he suddenly slightly tilts his body to the right, counteracting my wavering. Once I fully stabilized myself again, I quickly sit back down and hug his neck tightly only then do I relax and take deep breath. <strong><em>“You mustn’t worry little one, even if you were to fall, we would catch you.” </em></strong></p><p>Skaftás soft and gentle voice puts me at ease.</p><p>While I do keep tabs on them discussing the route and destination, I mostly pay attention to the ever-shrinking forest beneath us, by now we must be approaching an altitude of one mile.</p><p>I grip Scátháns neck a bit more tightly and hide my face in his neck.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“If it would help you feel safer, we could prove that we will always be able to catch you in time, even without magic?”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Scared yet intrigued I ask what he means, he responds with an image of him and Skaftá flying at different altitudes and me jumping off his back, since she was flying below him even if he were to miss me, she would be able to catch me. While some doubts remain, I decide to ignore them and to just trust them. I nod and without any further ado Scáthán angles his wings oh so slightly upwards and begins to rise. Skaftás begins to shrink as we climb further and further into the sky, soon I can merely make out her silhouette. Finally, he stops his ascent and we stay at a steady altitude, the air had already grown rather chilly as we were way past the 1-mile mark by now. I shudder and look downwards to spot Skaftá, her shape is just barely visible for me from up here. The thought of me just leaping off of Scátháns back sends a chill down my spine, even with Skaftá waiting to catch me that is still a drop of 1500 feet at least.</p><p><strong><em>“If I don’t catch you within 300 feet, I owe you one wish.” </em></strong>Smugness and confidence resonate in Scátháns voice. “I can wish for anything?” I ask as I slowly try to stand up again. Images of him in a pink dress flash before my eyes as I try to come up with the most outlandish things possible.</p><p>After a split second of hesitation, he reaffirms it.</p><p>I take a deep breath, close my eyes and begin to lean to the left. “I’ll trust you.” I say as my feet begin slip and a blink of an eye later, I feel myself falling free. I clench my eyes shut as then wind blows around me, pulling on my clothes and skin trying to rip them off, my entire body tenses up in an attempt to keep me stable as I plummet towards the ground. My descend doesn’t last too long though and not even half a dozen seconds later I feel myself bumping into Scátháns scales, then he embraces me with his front paws and tucks me close to his underbelly. Before I can open my eyes again, he already spreads his wings again to turn upright. Inertia presses me into him with its invisible hand and I decide it might be for the best to keep my eyes shut.</p><p>Once his flight had grown stable again, I carefully open my eyes again, as I expected I find myself staring down at the ground, everything looks like it had been shrunk to a fraction of its original size and it doesn’t appear Skaftá had come any closer. To my left and right only blue sky is to be seen with Scátháns black wings occasionally coming into view.</p><p>Turning my head as far as my neck lets me, I manage to just barely catch a glimpse of his head.</p><p><strong><em>“Wasn’t that scary now was it?” </em></strong>His voice still filled with smugness he turns his head to face her and grins a widely at her. “I do have to admit I didn’t expect you to catch up to me that fast… But do you intend to carry me like this for the rest of the day?” His grin grows even wider and an ominous feeling of dread fills me. <strong><em>“Obviously not.” </em></strong>And with that he lets go off me sending me on another trip towards the ground.</p><p>The wind makes my eyes water and the tears flow up into my hair all the while pushing against me slowing my fall oh so slightly.</p><p>As I’m about to open my mouth to scream curses at him he already appears at the edge of my vision again. His much more aerodynamic body allowing him to accelerate much quicker allowing him to easily speed past me and position himself under me such that once I catch up to him, I land right where I jumped off just a minute ago. Once his neck comes within reach of my arms, I immediately grab it and hold on tight, as soon as my arms make contact with his scales, he spreads his wings and slows his fall rapidly. My body crashes into his knocking the air out of my lungs and making my vision fade to black. Groaning and moaning I cautiously sit up. “Was that really necessary?”</p><p>Dizziness overcomes me and I close my eyes again, but it doesn’t help.</p><p>My mind still thinks I’m falling spinning out of control even though my body is just resting on Scátháns back, my headache grows stronger and stronger the longer I keep my eyes closed.</p><p>The headache is making me sick and forces me to open my eyes in a desperate attempt to not throw up, surprisingly just staring at the unmoving scales in front of me quickly alleviates my pain.</p><p>“Fuuuuck...” I moan as I straighten my back and blink rapidly. “Let’s not do that again any time soon, or at least be more careful next time.” I rub my temples and squint. <strong><em>“Sorry little one…”</em></strong> For the first time I hear him be genuinely sorry and sad that he had hurt me.</p><p>“It’s okay, a warning would be great though.” I take one deep breath and rest my hands on the right and left side of his back while looking down.</p><p>The last fleeting remnants of dizziness soon dissipate, as they do, I risk another look down his side to see how far up we were by now. Much to my surprise he had been keeping at a steady level, another thing I notice is Skaftás absence. While I had only been able to spot her silhouette, we weren’t far up enough yet for her to completely disappear, I check the other side but again I find nothing.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you looking for me?” </em></strong>Her voice spooks me and I quickly turn my head to see where she’s hiding</p><p>Still seeing not, a single trace of her neither to left nor the right I realize that she may be hiding above.</p><p>I tilt my head backwards to see whether she’s hiding directly above or slightly to left or right but again nothing, then suddenly I feel her blowing hot air against the back of my head.</p><p>Turning around as quickly as my body lets me, I nearly bump into her head, as she was merely an inch away.</p><p>She grins widely, letting me take a good look at her curved, pointy and razor-sharp teeth. <strong><em>“Took you long enough.”</em></strong> She tilts her body slightly and slowly drifts off to the left. <strong><em>“No more messing around now we got places to be.” </em></strong>She flaps her wings faster and faster as she ascends up into cloudless firmament, Scáthán not to be outdone by her follows suit.</p><p>I watch them in silence and eventually rest my head against his neck staring off into the horizon.</p><p>A mellow tiredness overcomes me, I struggle to keep my eyes open and my thoughts run slow and sluggish, maybe if I look at something more interesting than endless blue spanning my entire field of view, I wouldn’t fall asleep? Slowly I lift myself up and look down his right side. We must have risen much further than I expected as it’s nearly impossible to make out details on the ground anymore, everything had shrunk to an endless ocean of green, even the occasional speck of orange had disappeared. Looking ahead I see a wall of clouds approaching us, they must be part of the cold front they were talking about, then I realize that I was looking at the top of those rain laden clouds which meant we must have reached or passed an altitude of 3 miles. Another wave of tiredness overwhelms me, I nearly lose my grip on Scátháns scales. I quickly lie down on his back and lower neck and just let my arms hang down, after a few deep breaths to clear my mind I try to sit up again, but my muscles fail me, and I slump against his scales again. My heart pounds against my chest and my thoughts quickly turn foggy again, my field of view shrinks and the taste of blood fills my mouth. Using what little mental strength I have left I call out to them <em>“Help…” </em>My breath runs quick and shallow and any attempts to slow it only make me hyperventilate more.</p><p>I can hear and feel Scáthán slowing down until he’s just gliding along, both of their worry filled minds rush into mine, filling my consciousness with the same worry as theirs, a confused worry of not understanding what is wrong, I had felt it before but this time it was the most intense I had ever felt. By now I was just trying to cling to consciousness like someone clings to a life raft after a shipwreck. No matter how much or how deep I breathed nothing helped, my heart is beating at a frequency I didn’t even know was possible, it felt like it was about to explode and then as I’m about to slip away into the darkness it hits me, altitude sickness. I had heard of it in the past, it was something you only ever had to worry about when climbing tall mountains, but it also meant that anyone inexperienced was at a risk of dying to it and that wasn’t an uncommon thing to happen. With them flying up higher than the clouds we had long passed the altitude where humans begin to struggle and the dizziness I had felt was a first warning sign of my body, then then I had gotten used to the thinner air but the rapid climb in elevation was too much for my body to keep up with and now I was getting the bill for it.</p><p><em>“Oxygen...” </em>Is the last thought I can form before everything fades to black.</p><p>I wasn’t expecting to ever wake up after fainting but luckily, they could figure out what I meant from my last thoughts and put a spell on me that greatly increased the air pressure around me in a 3 feet radius. My breath runs slow and steady again, my heart beating at its normal pace and my mind clear as always. With my vision quickly clearing up I take a deep breath and sit up. My hands are still a little shaky but that bothered me much. I glance around, my surroundings hadn’t changed much since I blacked out, then again up here there was not much that could change anyways. The sun had moved a little closer to the horizon but that was basically it. Next, I take a look downwards, where I had previously seen huge forests only interrupted by the occasional river my eyes now spot a dense blanket of white clouds, it almost looks like someone draped a layer of cotton candy over the planet. In my mind I reach out to my parents, both of their minds feel like they are extremely close, closer than they should be, at least according the real world. Skaftá spears to be the closer of the two and taking a peek at her thoughts I can see that she’s worried still, but relief had replaced almost all concern within her. She must have been waiting for me to turn my attention towards their minds, maybe to not scare me again, because as soon as I finish peeking at her mind, I hear her voice ring through my head. <strong><em>“Finally, you’re back little one, I’m sorry we didn’t know that you humans can’t deal with high altitudes.” </em></strong>A weak smile spreads across my lips. “Don’t worry, you can’t know everything, now can you?” I still sound rather winded and even simple things like talking make my heart speed up that doesn’t matter, I wasn’t dying anymore and that’s what mattered.</p><p>She had already returned to her own thoughts, though she still kept watch over my spirit. Quickly I grew bored of watching the ever changing yet still the same looking clouds pass beneath us I look around for anything else to keep my occupied but up where we were flying there was nothing, if it were my first time flying I would have been amazed at the curvature of the earth but I had seen it a handful of times in past already and looking up of left or right there was nothing, just an empty firmament. Disappointed and bored I lie down, fold my arms and rest my head on them, we had been lying for a couple hours now, it felt like it at least, and from what they told me we would be up here for another 10 if not more. Deciding that being upset about my predicament wouldn’t do anything for anyone I let my thoughts wander, going back to the memories of me exploring the forest and how Skaftá found me. The happenings of the days after that, flow past my mind’s eye like a movie, my memories are spotty but what remains is etched into my memory. Some of the memories seem odd and going back to them I notice that I’m looking at myself, not like I was looking into a mirror but actually seeing myself from another beings’ point of view. I inspect a particular memory of my mangled body lying between the roots of a tree, it took place right after I lashed out at Skaftá when she was trying to pick me up and smacked me out of reflex. I remember the pain all too well, even now after she had healed my bones remembering those moments still makes them ache. Judging from the angle, that who this memory originally belongs to is looking at my body from, it can only belong Skaftá but what are her memories doing in my head?</p><p>Intrigued I put that memory aside again, I already knew what would happen in it, she would approach me again and proceed to heal my broken body like she healed me when I burnt my skin or skewered myself on her teeth. Instead I start digging for odd memories that didn’t belong to me.</p><p>My search quickly bears fruits as I stumble onto another one that doesn’t fit anywhere. It’s another one of Skaftás, she was gliding through the air miles up into the sky, under her only small cotton ball like clouds disturb her view of the fields, clearly humans using the land for agriculture, beneath her. She looks ahead at the horizon and spots a giant pillar of clouds starting less than a mile above the ground standing several miles tall, she knows it’s a storm cloud and that flying beneath it puts her at risk of getting struck by lightning while the winds above it are entirely unpredictable and strong enough to throw her around like I would toss a pebble. Her only choices are diverting her path far to the right or left or landing and waiting out the storm. The wind is blowing slightly from the right of her but mostly from behind, as she ponders what to do her stomach grumbles loudly, reminding her of the fact that she hadn’t eaten in days. She takes a cursory glance at the ground beneath and realizes she won’t be able to find much food here, meaning that if she were to land, she wouldn’t be able to heave herself up into the air again. Thus, she begrudgingly decides to turn right and keep flying. At first everything goes according to plan, the wind keeps pushing the storm to the right but then out of seemingly nowhere the wind changes direction, or was that current always there and the storm just hadn’t reached it yet? It doesn’t matter, all that mattered was that the storm suddenly changed direction, she thought she had already passed it but instead the huge column of dark clouds begins to catch up with her. As the storm comes closer and closer it begins to suck all the surrounding air into it and then suddenly, she gets caught by an extremely strong downdraft, like a mosquito getting sucked into a vacuum the clouds swallow her. That’s where the memory ends, I’m not sure if it’s just incomplete or if she blacked out, I’ll have to ask her later.</p><p>As I continue to poke around, I find more and more random memories strewn throughout mine, they mostly belong to Skaftá with only a few belonging to Scáthán and one or two featuring both.</p><p>The memories where both appear are especially interesting as the point of view of them jumps between the two dragons constantly, it feels as if their minds were one during those moments.</p><p>The hours fly by as I lose myself in their recollections of events long past and while I soon run out of new memories to inspect I can relive many of them several times over thanks to the tremendous amount of detail that they can remember, while I may only get a superficial look the first time, the second time when I don’t need to pay as close attention to the visuals I can focus a lot more on their own thoughts in those moments and how their logic works.</p><p>All fun things need to come to an early end and this time is no exception. Soon I’m torn out of my blissful trance back into the real world by the sun setting and the air growing more turbulent, making Scátháns move abruptly at times.</p><p>They’re still high up in the sky though with no plans to descend any time soon. The world around us quickly gets devoured by darkness and stars begin to light up the night’s sky. This far up, with only the moon shedding its weak light upon us, they are especially plentiful, with a dense band of them running across from one horizon to the other, I assume it has to be the Milky Way. With the stars being so plentiful it becomes incredibly hard to spot the zodiac signs, or any star formation for that matter, not that I was particularly knowledgeable on them anyways. While the constant ups and downs caused by the unstable winds are annoying, they don’t bother me too much while stargazing.</p><p>Staring up into the sky I begin drawing my own star formations into the firmament. To the far right I spot a dozen or so stars that, with a lot of creativity, kind of resemble the crude shape of a dragon’s head and part of their throat. Slightly to the left of it I find a tree like structure and even further to the left something that could be a house like you would see it in the countryside. Turning my head to the left I notice a handful of stars that could form a near perfect pentagon with only one of the angles obviously deviating from the perfect 72°. The left hemisphere of the sky turns out to be a lot more boring, aside from the pentagon and Ursa Minor, the only constellation I could consistently spot ever since I was a kid.</p><p>Much too soon I need to stop as my neck and shoulder start to hurt, with nothing to do yet again I soon grow bored and retreat into my mind again trying to re-enter that wonderful trance and to swim along the stream of my memories. All my attempts are soon interrupted by Scáthán hitting another turbulence and either dropping several feet or getting lifted up a yard or two, shaking my entire body in the process and bringing me back to the real world any time I finally drift off.</p><p>Frustrated I give up and just let my eyes wander, looking at nothing in particular while trying to come up with something to do. Eventually my eyes get stuck on the scales covering Scátháns neck, I carefully run my hands across them, I wonder if they can feel me touching them, and if they do just how sensitive are, they to touch? I take a good look at every single scale in front of me, most of them are small at most an inch across, which makes a lot of sense as this part of his body needs to be flexible and large scales would only get in the way of that. I run my hands over his neck shoulders again trying to feel out the crevices between individual scales but much to my surprise there seem to be hardly any, in some cases it takes me several tries to find them. Dragons truly are wondrous creatures in every regard.</p><p>After running out of scales to stare at I drop my head onto his neck and stare at the horizon, how much longer would we be up here? I figure it would be best to just ask them but seeing that trying to talk to them doesn’t get me anywhere, either because the wind overpowers me voice or they simply don’t notice. I retreat into my mind and try to not let the occasional bumps distract me. After watching their thoughts for a little, they both were completely zoned out flying on autopilot, I focus on Scátháns mind. <em>“Hey, how much longer do you plan to keep flying? Aren’t you getting tired?” </em></p><p>His mind pulses violently, almost like I scared it, I notice his wings stopping their movement for a second or two. <strong><em>“Not much longer, we’ll shortly start gliding. Yes, if you haven’t noticed yet we’re both very tired.” </em></strong>He takes several breaks as he speaks to recollect his thoughts as the words keep slipping him, I had never seen either of them so tired I fear he might fall asleep while flying.</p><p><em>“Is there anything I can do for you?” </em>I ask, concern filling my voice. <strong><em>“There’s nothing you can do for me, but Skaftá needs every bit of help she can get.” </em></strong>With those words he seemingly shuts me out of his mind. When I try to talk to him again, I notice that the connection to him is extremely weak and that I can’t really see what he thinks or feels. I try to talk to Skaftá like he suggested but my words just bounce off of her, frustrated with both of them ignoring me I yell at her with my inner voice, this finally gets her attention.</p><p>The instant her mind makes contact with mine I feel a wave of pain rushing through my body, it takes all my strength to not push her consciousness away from mine. Once the initial onslaught of pain stops, I manage to take a better look, her thoughts had been reduced to the most basic level by the pain and exhaustion. She can only communicate in pictures and emotions as she had become too debilitated to form any coherent sentence.</p><p>I ask her what if there is anything, I can do to help her, anything at all. She takes much longer than usual to formulate her answer and when she finally does, all I can feel is a mess of emotions and some heavily distorted pictures, twisted by pain and discoloured by exhaustion.</p><p>The bundle of emotions takes me a little to work through, but it quickly becomes clear that she is pleading me to take some of her pain, the pictures she sent me were even more difficult to decipher and all I can make out is something about borrowing and energy. After what felt like an eternity it dawns on me, she was telling me that she wants to borrow some of my meagre energy reserves. Though I’m sure that my tiny body hardly contains power for her to even notice it I agree, for a short moment she seems to forget her pain only for a slight upwind to blow into her wings sending a sharp searing pain through her side and shoulders and making a quiet growl escape her mouth. As soon as the hurt subsides, she focuses entirely on my mind again, like a starving animal her mind quickly envelops mine, my feelings become hers and hers become mine as our minds join. Even as I still feel myself falling into the ocean that is her realm of thoughts and memories, I can already sense her pain, my entire back feels like it is on fire, my lungs sting like I had been breathing glass dust and my neck grows sore. I try to fight away the pain she’s pushing onto me but to no avail, even though she’s on the verge of collapsing her mind easily overpowers mine. After a short fight I give up and fully surrender myself to her, letting her take full control over me, anything I had been thinking about mere moments ago gets washed away and replaced by agonizing pain while at the same time she drains every fibre of my body, leaving me with barely enough to keep my heart beating and my lungs breathing. Just like I expected, even now with me equally close to blacking out from fatigue, the energy she got from is hardly noticeably and used up with a couple flaps of her wings but still she can appreciate what little I can do for her not that I care, I am way too busy trying to withstand the enormous amounts of pain that she was dumping onto me. I couldn’t even sense my body anymore or even think, all of me is dominated by her pain, it’s all I have become and all that mattered. Quickly I can feel my sanity slip away, I want to hide or get away but Skaftá has a vice grip on my mind. Luckily Scáthán had taken notice of what was happening and swiftly intervenes, which I only notice because I feel some amount of his pain too, it’s a lot less but still noticeable. I can feel him hastily push Skaftás mind away from mine and then once he separated us again, he immediately cuts the bond between me and her to prevent her from influencing me too easily. As soon as I lose my connection to Skaftá the agony disappears, like I woke up from a bad dream. I find myself sitting on Scátháns back just like before, as if nothing had happened, only a slight sting in my right shoulder remains as a reminder. After taking a deep breath I try to see what the hell the two of them are doing now as their wing movements have seized completely, only the wind causing the skin to ripple a little. When I return to the world of my thoughts and emotions, I immediately notice that my connection to Skaftá had disappeared, though if I try hard enough, I can still faintly sense her, she appears to be feeling better and calmer, but I can’t make out much more.</p><p>Scáthán had opened his mind again too and I carefully check, he felt angry and upset, mostly with Skaftá because she had so recklessly endangered my life and sanity but also with himself for shutting me out so rudely and not considering what would happen if I offered myself up to her.</p><p>Soon he notices me watching him, how they do it I don’t know but they seem to instinctively know when I’m watching their thoughts.</p><p><strong><em>“We decided it’s time to land, we didn’t make it as far as we wanted to, but we’ll have to make do otherwise we run the risk of crashing, I’m sorry for what happened today.” </em></strong>While he can still form sentences without too much trouble, I can tell that he too has reached his limit, though that doesn’t prevent him from giving energy to Skaftá and taking over a significant part of the pain she’s feeling.</p><p>With a sombre nod I leave him be and just lie on his back as we slowly glide downwards, they only lose height very gradually, so it takes us what feels like forever to even reach the clouds. During this part of our travel the winds luckily play along and don’t make us deal with too many turbulences, only once we pass through the lowest layer of clouds does the air grow wilder.</p><p>Much to my surprise the bubble of air they had created around me protects me from the dense fog that makes up the clouds and I watch in awe as it parts in front of me as if there was some magic barrier.</p><p>After gliding through the clouds for a couple minutes we finally reach break through their underside, my parents wings pick up some of mist and drag it behind them forming something that looks like contrails for a short time. The scenery below us had changed a bit from the last time I actually got to see the ground, near the horizon I can spot a vast lake or maybe even ocean spanning from the far right to the far left, directly below us a sparse forest covers the ground soon to be replaced by grasslands and then dunes. Behind us the forest quickly grows denser until it looks just like the forest at the foot of our previous home.</p><p>I take in the new surrounding with amazement, I had been to the ocean before but only in the touristy places where everything was either beaches or concrete, with only the occasional park to serve as a speck of green in the grey desert of the city so seeing this completely, isolated from humanity, side of the ocean quite easily took my breath.</p><p>As we pass the tail end of the forest Scáthán enters a wide downward spiral with Skaftá following suit.</p><p>During those last moments of our descent I get to take a through look at all our surroundings, it becomes clear that we must be close to the ocean, the air smells of salt and algae and the dunes are way too big to be part of any lake I ever heard of. The fact that we are so close to a large body of water also reflects in the forest and meadow, they look a lot more saturated and healthier than they did near the mountain range. Another thing that I hadn’t seen before is just how many animals can live in a small area, when we got close enough to the ground where I could make out more details I spot at least 2 herds of deer, a family of boars and even some wild cows that likely escaped from some farm far away, with food so plentiful around here they all grew round and plum. Taking a peek at Scátháns mind I sense a lot of discomfort but also an ever-growing amount of relief, happiness and a ravenous hunger, without even checking I know Skaftá feels the same if not hungrier while in more pain still.</p><p>Seeing that their suffering is soon over as the ground grows ever nearer, a wide happy smile forms on my face, I can’t wait for them to finally get their well-deserved rest. I sit up to take a better look at what lies beneath us, though I also hold onto his neck tightly, much to my surprise, even now that we are close enough to the treetops that they occasionally rustle when we fly past them the wildlife doesn’t seem to notice us, they look up at the trees whenever they make an unexpected noise and sometimes they do run away for a bit, but not nearly as far as I assumed they would. Maybe they didn’t see us, but I had my doubts, how could they not see two huge dragons barrelling across the nights sky, even if there wasn’t enough light reflecting off their scales to be visible, certainly they would notice them blocking out the stars and moon or was I giving the animals intelligence too much credit? Maybe they did indeed not notice us.</p><p>I don’t get to ponder the intelligence of animals much longer as Scáthán suddenly angles his wings upwards to rapidly slow down. Just barely I manage to not crash into his neck, the amount of time it takes him to slow down makes me realize just how fast we had been flying, possibly over 90 miles an hour.</p><p>As we’re about to pass a clearing he folds his wings close to his side, we plummet to the ground like a sack of rocks. I brace myself for the impact but much to my surprise I can only feel a slight bump as his paws hit the ground, then he hobbles a handful of steps forward and comes to a full stop. The second the rumbling of him stomping through the clearing falls eerily quiet except for his heavy breath, I look upwards at the sky trying to see where Skaftá was as she hadn’t landed yet.</p><p>The darkness of the night makes it hard for me to spot her so I have to rely on my ears, which surprisingly works quite well, I can hear her wings swoosh through the air above us. It appears she passed over the clearing once to get a better view of it and make sure it’s safe to land.</p><p>The rustle of her wings grows quieter, then stays stagnant as she turns and grows louder again.</p><p>During her second pass I can hear her slow down a little, which is accompanied by a painful growl and a quiet thud as she drops the box of my belongings onto the clearing though the impact sounds awfully soft for the height, she must have dropped it from. Again, she passes above us and I can just feel that she won’t make another one, so she has to land the next time.</p><p>Scáthán, not being able to even stand anymore, suddenly drops to his knees and then just barely manages to lie down before falling onto his side, throughout all of this I just barely cling to his neck. I gasp but otherwise stay quiet, being way too focused on listening for Skaftás return.</p><p>Anxiously I keep my ears perked up and then, I again hear the sound of her approaching, as she draws closer, I hear her growl, likely because she was trying to slow down.</p><p>Then as she’s almost right above us a quiet albeit agony filled roar followed by the ground shaking and a rumble echoes through the forest followed by a crash and a grunt as well as the sound of wood breaking.</p><p>The forest falls unnaturally quiet again, only Scátháns breathing can be heard and nothing else.</p><p>I feel a lump form in my throat, this is bad. For a moment I forget that I’m still sitting on Scátháns back and I jump up, then hop off his back.</p><p>My feet hit the ground with a quiet thud and while I planned to absorb most of the impact by bending my knees, but I way underestimated how much I would accelerate during the short fall, so I end up falling over and knocking the wind out of me. I can hear Scáthán move his head, likely to see what happened to me and I can feel his worried mind brush against mine. I want to assure him I’m fine but at the same time I want to get over to where Skaftá crash landed as quickly as possible, so I take a deep breath and with a groan stand back up. Still slightly dazed I stagger towards where I see blue scales shimmer in the pale moonlight, my eyes take a moment to accustom themselves to the even worse lighting under the trees where she lies but eventually, I can make out some rough details and they aren’t pretty. She lies before me, half on her back half on her side, one wing neatly folded away and tucked to her side like usual but the other one, the one she’s sort of lying on protrudes away from her in a manner that would only be possible by breaking bones, worse yet I even spot some grass like green in the blue of her wings which can mean that her wings got punctured in at least one place.</p><p>I kneel down next to her tattered wing and gently run my hand across it, at first, she doesn’t move but then suddenly the entire wing trembles and abysmal growl escapes her throat making me immediately jump back. While I was so focused on her wing, I hadn’t even noticed that she had begun breathing again, even if it was irregular, heavy, rattling breaths, she was breathing again.</p><p>I run around her wing, taking extreme care not to accidentally step on it in the dark, over to her head. It lies on the ground upside down, and when I kneel down and press my head into the grass to get a glimpse at her eyes, she was staring at me with a hollow stare, devoid of any of her usual warmth, happiness and calmness, only agonizing pain remained. Panicked I look over to Scáthán and even though it was too dark to see his scales I could still easily spot the pair of disembodied yellow eyes, but I don’t find what I was hoping for. I was hoping he would have a solution but instead he stares back at me with the same helpless gaze that I was looking at him with, I was much too weak to be of any help in this situation and he had spent all his energy on flying.</p><p>My panic only grows stronger and in a feeble attempt to ease her torture I hug Skaftás head and gently pet her, which had previously helped to make her feel better. It seems to work this time too. Her growling grows a little quieter and her breathing calms oh so slightly.</p><p>Suddenly she tries to lift her head, for what reason I don’t know, but as soon as her body shifts even slightly an excruciating whimper escapes her, her legs spasm and she drops back onto the ground, her breathing growing more unsteady again. I cling to her snout tightly and tears well up in my eyes, I want to help her so much but I can’t, now I know how the people felt that tried to get a whale back into the ocean, no matter what they did all they could do in the end is watch the whale slowly die as its own weight crushes it. I want to join spirits with her and take all the pain off her, even if it kills me but since Scáthán cut the connection between us and I can’t find it in me to focus enough to re-establish contact with her I can’t even do that.</p><p>All I could do is hope that she only broke her wing and that semi lying on her back doesn’t hurt her and then wait until Scáthán recovered enough so that he could help her. The hopelessness of this situations and how useless I have been makes me feel suicidal all over again, if I wouldn’t have lived then they wouldn’t have had to carry me and my shit and she wouldn’t have crashed, everything would be better for them. Angry tears stream down my cheeks as I angry sob into Skaftá chin.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey now, calm down. She’ll live, it’s only her wing that broke, she has survived much worse, it just so happens that a broken wing hurts more than anything else, especially since she’s lying on it. Also, you did do good for us, you remind us that we aren’t the only intelligent life on this planet and give us joy, if you were a burden for us then we would have been rid of you long ago.” </em></strong>Scátháns voice grumbles through my head with such intensity that it paralyzes my thoughts, he sounds almost angry with me, angry because I assumed that I meant so little to them.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s best you go to sleep, there is nothing either of us can do and again she can bear it, she’s been through worse and I’m sure if you ask her, she’ll show you. Now do yourself a favour and get some rest. Skaftá would much prefer you recover than you stay up the entire night okay.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>His anger had either subsided already or he was just masking it very well, in either case he had a point, she had always taken good care of me, she wouldn’t want me to suffer pointlessly. With much displeasure I lie down in the soft, slightly damp grass next to Skaftá and try to sleep, at first her breathing keeps me awake but soon enough the events of today catch up with me and I fall into a comatose slumber.</p><p>The next morning comes and passes with none of us even stirring, it isn’t until late noon that I finally awaken. When I open my eyes, I find myself staring at an overcast sky, the sun shining through the occasional hole in the clouds, birds a chirping and fluttering past us without a care.</p><p>Slowly I sit up and look around, now that the sun is out the carnage of last night is much more obvious, it looks like someone took a plough to the clearing, large patches of grass had been torn, shredded and flung all over the clearing, two large over twenty feet long and about a foot deep streaks where Skaftá had fallen and slid over the ground were clearly visible too, looking left I see that she had crashed into a couple of trees, which were now half uprooted and standing at a 30° angle, luckily she had been able to avoid a head on collision and instead had hit them with her shoulder and upper side which sadly also meant that she may have broken the base of her wings too.</p><p>Her tail had torn out all the bushes lining one side of the clearing, but her scales had done her job and protected her from the thorns. The side of the clearing where Scáthán had landed looks a lot better, only a dozen or so slightly drawn out paw prints were visible along with a couple skid marks where he had collapsed. I turn around to peek at Skaftás eyes, her eyelids are clenched shut and it doesn’t seem like she’ll wake up any time soon. After rolling onto my back again and just gazing at the sky some more I finally work up the nerve to get up and take a look at her wing, I could already see part of it, but I really shouldn’t be able to judge from the angle. As I get closer and her wing fully comes into view my stomach turns, I notice at least three long tears in her pterygium, while no bones stick out of her skin there are several bends where there shouldn’t be any and one joint looks horribly dislocated, then I spot one large ovalish hole, further inspection of it shows that she landed on a rock that first punctured her wing, then tore a large hole into it as she slid over the ground. The grass beneath her wing is covered in her red brownish blood which had turned into a dry crust by now. The vertical tears in her wings must be stress tears as they all form nearly perfect vertical lines, one goes all the way from the bottom of her wing up to the bones holding her wing together while the other started in the middle and then expanded upwards and downwards to varying degrees, further more I spot dozens of smaller gashes around the big ones, all of them run parallel to the major tears, most of them only look like surface level rips. All things considered her right wing is completely destroyed and it may take months for it to heal properly, hopefully Scáthán has enough magic to fix it, if that’s even possible, but knowing that Skaftá had previously brought me back from the brink of death I have hope. I sit down next to her wrecked wing and lean against her underside. They won’t be awake for another few hours from the looks of it and there was nothing I could do and waking them would probably be a terrible idea. With nothing to do I just sit there and watch the clouds fly by while listening to the birds, surprisingly they sounded to be quite close, while I could never spot any in the trees nearby, I saw plenty scurry across the sky above me and chatter and chirp away happily not too far away. Weren’t they scared of these two huge dragons or could they sense that they currently posed no danger to them? As I sit there pondering that and many other questions, I find my mind wandering over to Skaftá again and again, at first only in my memories but then without me even noticing I find myself reaching for her mind. When I realize what was going on, I immediately stop myself, I shouldn’t be zoning out like this, Scátháns words ring through my head again, stray too far from your body and you’ll die and what would building a new connection with Skaftá even do for me? It may just wake her up and then she would be actively suffering again, right now in her sleep the pain doesn’t bother her at least. Now that I wasn’t too overwhelmed by this whole alternate plane of existence spiel I find it much easier to break out of my trance and come back to the real world, all I had to do is focus on what my body was feeling, the grass tickling my legs, the birds chirping, as long as it wasn’t a visual stimulus it worked.</p><p>When I find myself back on the clearing I decide that it would be better to keep me distracted so my mind won’t wander again, while looking around for things to do I notice that the sky had cleared up a fair bit so I watch the few that still float across the sky like little balls of cotton and try to find some sort of shape or pattern in them. The hours slowly creep past and while the clouds kept me entertained for a while, I find myself bored again much sooner than I anticipated.</p><p>As I count the blades of grass around me for the 5<sup>th</sup> time, I hear a quiet rustle, I look up straightaway to see Scáthán stir in his sleep, his tail twitches and he flexes the muscles in his legs, I hope he wakes up soon.</p><p>He falls silent again and just I’m about to resume counting grass he slowly opens his eyes, his view still appears tired and exhausted but at least he can move again, even if it’s just a little. I smile and wave at him but remain silent otherwise. Scáthán blinks slowly and yawns before sluggishly standing up and stretching, now that he’s awake his presence in my mind grows much stronger and I take a quick glimpse at his thoughts. While his body is still sore and stiff it will soon go away and all in all he doesn’t feel too terrible, just like I would feel if I spent an entire day running around.</p><p>He looks at me, then at Skaftá and then frowns. <strong><em>“It’s worse than I thought…” </em></strong>He sounds sombre but not hopeless. While he slowly makes his way over to her his frown grows. <strong><em>“Much worse, how did she manage to mess up her wing this bad?” </em></strong>He lowers his head and carefully examines her, after a little while he lifts his head up and looks down at her head, then releases a sigh like growl. <strong><em>“Luckily, it’s just her wing but I will never understand why she won’t quit before she pushes herself too far, she doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone and in the end, it just makes it worse for everyone…” </em></strong>He turns his head to look at me. <strong><em>“Are you alright at least? You were quite reckless when you jumped off my back.” </em></strong>He sounds rather concerned.</p><p>I nod quickly. “I’m all good, can you fix her wing? Just how badly is it messed up?” I’m mostly concerned with Skaftá getting well quickly, while I did get a few bruises from my fall I don’t mention them. <strong><em>“Good, one thing at least. It’s bad, probably the worst I’ve seen so far. It won’t be easy to fix but also not impossible… If you would please stand back a little so I can get started.” </em></strong>He lowers his head again and takes a through look at the vertical tears.</p><p>In the meantime, I jump up and scurry off to his side, I sort of hide behind one of his front legs but keep a close eye on what he’s doing.</p><p>Scáthán takes a small step forward and places one paw on her belly, for what reason I don’t know.</p><p>His eyes begin to glow, tinting her wing a weird shade of light green. As he channels the magic within him through his body into Skaftás wounds where the energy quickly goes to work, the skin of her wings seems to almost liquefy and flow into the rips and tears quickly filling them in and then solidifying again, even the big hole in her wing quickly closes up.</p><p>With a slight turn of his head he directs the flow of energy to her mangled bones and with a series of snapping sounds they quickly pop back into place, once all the bones were fixed the joints fix themselves too, then the glow in Scátháns eyes fades and he steps back. I notice that he has become slightly shaky again, but he looks happy and content with his work.</p><p>I him wherever I can reach, which happens to be his right front paws knee, he turns his head towards me and smiles. “That was quick, just how difficult was it to fix her? Also why did you place your paw on her like that?” I try to see if Skaftá is waking up yet. <strong><em>“It wasn’t a difficult spell per se just one that took a ton of energy, not as much as I expected though, most of the broken bones were nice clean breaks and not fractures. You remember how healing a burn makes your skin tingle? She was feeling the same and I was trying to pin her down in case she tried to move which would have just resulted in her hurting herself more.” </em></strong> Even his voice shows clear signs of exhaustion again.</p><p>I sit down between his front paws and he follows suit, lying down in the soft grass as well while we wait for her to awaken from her slumber.</p><p>After what feels like an eternity she finally opens her eyes and looks around, she seems surprised that her wing is already fixed and carefully moves it around before even more carefully folding it to her side, then she takes a few tries to get back on her feet and while I was worried that she would crush the freshly healed wing again nothing seems to happen, it appears completely untouched even though her entire weight was just resting on it. Back on her feet she shakes off the tufts of grass and bushes that stuck to her sending them flying all over the clearing.</p><p>She stretches, making her joints crack and pop before turning around and gently rubbing her head against Scátháns. Even without a telepathic connection to her I can feel the gratitude emanating from her, after they are done nuzzling one another and lowers her down to my level and proceeds to nudge me with the tip of her snout too. I wrap my arms around her head and rest my head against her scales with a happy smile on my face. Her mind brushes against mine and without any effort on my part I can feel the connection to her reform. <strong><em>“Thank you so much little one, I know I caused you a lot of pain yesterday, pain that shouldn’t have been yours but even then, you came to my side when I was hurt. I’m so incredibly sorry, I just wasn’t myself… I hope you can forgive me. I also want you to know how much you coming and staying by my side meant to me.” </em></strong>The sudden flood of emotions, happy and sad at the same time overwhelms me. “Hey, you have been taking care of me even though I tried to attack you and run away it’s the least I could have done.” I’m happy to have her calm and happy self-back. <strong><em>“That doesn’t compare at all but if you want to see it like that so be it.” </em></strong>We spend a couple minutes just sitting there, me embracing her and her happily smiling at me as we just enjoy each other’s presence.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s time to go you two little lovebugs.” </em></strong>Scáthán had been watching us this entire time.</p><p>While I would have loved to stay like this for a while longer, I was hungry and I could tell they were too and almost as if on cue Skaftás stomach rumbles loudly, we all look at each other and grin, it was time for a hunt, a feast really. <strong><em>“It may be best if we hunt separately, I’ll take Arya with me.” </em></strong>Skaftá swiftly removes her head from my embrace and scents the air, Scáthán does the same and after a minute or so they look at each other. I was watching their minds intently as they were talking about who would go in which direction and where we would meet up again before Skaftá looks down at me again. <strong><em>“Let’s go I’m starving, and you must be too.” </em></strong>I nod and quickly jump up as she heads off into the thicket. As we head off south, I look over my shoulder to see Scáthán walk off into the opposite direction, it seems like he already recovered from casting that spell, maybe Skaftá had given him some energy?</p><p>It’s a lot cooler in the shade of the trees, I can feel the hairs on my arms stand on end and I try to stay closer to her side to be protected from the gentle breeze. We keep walking in silence for about a mile maybe more before Skaftás pace changes, she’s walking silently like a cat now and I try my best to not make any noise either, then suddenly she leaps up and out through the treetops and disappears for a couple seconds before reappearing about one hundred yards to my left where a family of wild boars had been very busy digging through the soil on the lookout for food.</p><p>Their squeals fill the air as she lands right on top of the mother hog and their children as well as the alpha male, with a single sweep of her tail she takes out another handful while she manages to catch two with her jaws instantly killing them. The survivors scatter in all direction as fast as their short stubby legs carry them, luckily, they all ignore me. As the sound of them trampling through the underwood fades, I can only hear the weak squeaking of the ones that survived the sweep of her tail though they too are quickly silenced as she devours them.</p><p>The crunching of her chowing down is the only sound to be heard as I quickly make my way over to her, I worry that if I take too long, she will simply move on to the next herd of prey. An apple tree catches my eye halfway there, the lower branches had been cleared out by the animals of the forest and whatever was lying on the floor was worm infested but about six feet up in the air, I spot a couple of good-looking ones, so I stop and quickly pluck a handful before jogging onwards.</p><p>I make just in time to watch her tilt her head back and swallow one of her last prey, then she picks the last remaining one, the alpha male by the looks of it, off the ground with her claws and drops it in between her jaws. With one quick bite she completely obliterates its body, she chews a little longer before swallowing, the sound of her chewing reminds me of eating cereal.</p><p>She licks her jaws clean and then looks at me. <strong><em>“Oh, you’re already here, sorry I forgot to save some for you.” </em></strong>She keeps licking her maw, clearly enjoying the taste of her food.</p><p>“Don’t worry about me, I managed to fetch myself some apples and I don’t know how well my body handles raw meat.” I take a hearty bite out of an apple, they taste mostly sweet with only a slight sour note, overall, they’re pretty good, not that best I ever had but quite okay.</p><p>She smiles happily. <strong><em>“Good to see that you can fend for yourself if you had to.” </em></strong>She eyes the apples that I’m holding to my chest. <strong><em>“Can I have one too? I’ve seen them before but never considered eating them.” </em></strong>Her eyes glimmer with curiosity.</p><p>I dig my teeth into the one I’m currently eating and use my free hand to chuck one her way, she had obviously anticipated it as she quickly moves her head to catch it mid-air. Because the apple is so tiny compared to her, she struggles to chew it at first but once she manages to her expression immediately changes to one of intrigue and wonder. I tilt my head slightly and make a hmming sound, she swallows and then answers. <strong><em>“Interesting, they taste pretty good but won’t ever make a full meal or even a snack for me.” </em></strong>She smacks her lips a couple of times then smells the air for her next prey. In the meantime, I finish my first apple and chuck the stem of it over my shoulder before taking a bite out of the next one, the feeling of finally having something to eat makes me forget everything for a moment. Only when she squeezes herself between two trees does the sound of her scales scraping over the bark of the trees snap me out of my daydream and I quickly run after her.</p><p>Again, we slowly make out way through the forest, where exactly we are headed, I’m not sure but it certainly will lead us to more prey for her.</p><p>During our walk I let my mind wander a little again and soon stumble upon another memory that has to belong to Skaftá and as I’m taking a look at I remember that I wanted to ask her why I have been finding these in my head and what the deal with that one memory of her getting sucked into a storm was. I take one last bite of my apple before speaking up. “Uhm, Skaftá? I’ve been finding some of yours and Scátháns memories in between my own, how come? And when I was checking some of them out yesterday, I found one of you getting sucked into a thunder storm by a down draft, but it got cut off all the sudden, what was the deal with that? Did you black out?”</p><p>She freezes right then and there. <strong><em>“What have you been finding?” </em></strong>Her voice is full of disbelief and she slowly turns her head towards me. “M-memories that have to belong to either you or Scáthán…” Her reaction surprises me, and I feel her mind pour into mine.</p><p>She doesn’t have to look through my memories for too long before she finds something, coincidentally it’s the memory that got cut short, she keeps rummaging around a little more before retreating out of my mind. I can feel her mind stay close to mine, watching me closely. <strong><em>“That really shouldn’t happen, I hope it doesn’t disturb you. I can’t tell why but now there is no changing it, I just hope it doesn’t replace your memories.” </em></strong>She sounds quite worried now.</p><p>“Oh no it doesn’t I find it interesting more than anything, what makes you so worried?” Her concern is rubbing off on me and I can’t fully hide it. <strong><em>“I worry that eventually all your memories will be replaced by ours, that you won’t know who you are anymore. It’s something I didn’t think would be possible.” </em></strong>She wraps her tail around me and gently squeezes me to signify a tight hug.</p><p>“I honestly don’t care much about my past memories. For all I care it doesn’t matter if I am still human or something else, all I care for is that I can be with you and Scáthán.” All worry is washed away as I remember just how much my life in the city sucked, even if I were to lose all my memories of being human and had them replaced with theirs it would still be better.</p><p>She seems suspicious that I care so little but then decides that it’s for the best to change topic.</p><p><strong><em>“That memory you were talking about, I don’t know why it got cut off, but I can show you the rest if you want.” </em></strong>I immediately perk up and nod eagerly. <strong><em>“Just be warned, it’ll get loud, bright and painful.” </em></strong>She has this ominous tone in her voice that makes me hesitate for a second but then I nod again and brace myself. I feel like I’m falling as she plucks my mind out of my body and envelops it, I’ll never get used to that feeling, then everything fades to white and before my vision slowly clears, revealing a completely different scenery to me. I find myself in her body, rapidly spinning, tumbling through the air. She tries to hold her wings close, but the wind keeps grabbing them and pulling on them, almost like two invisible hands trying to tear them out, she releases and ear deafening roar and tries her best with the help of magic to regain control and it works, shortly. Her magic energy quickly runs out and the winds take over again, then suddenly everything turns dark as she falls into the looming clouds. She shuts her eyes to prevent small pieces of ice and dust that are swirling around from blinding her, her eyes wouldn’t be of any help anymore anyways. By now she’s given up on trying to recover, the only thing that mattered now was keeping her wings from getting torn off. Out of nowhere a lightning bolt shoots past her, just barely missing her, the resulting thunder makes her ears ring and head hurt, the incredible pressure delta even caused some of the tiny blood vessels in her nose and mouth to pop. Her heart beats at a speed I didn’t fathom would be possible and her breath has turned into short panicked gasps, then, another lightning bolt blasts through the clouds and right through her, the current forces every muscle in her body to spasm, seizures strong enough to make strands of muscles snap in half run through her body, her breathing completely stops and her heart loses its rhythm contracting in a completely uncoordinated manner. Her vision begins to fade, and she is sure that this is it, the storm had bested her and taken her life as its price. She falls out of the bottom of the clouds, still spinning around her own axis, with the seizures dying down she slowly opens her eyes to take one last look at the world before she dies. Her vision is a blurry mess of green and dark blue because she’s spiralling too fast but it’s all she wanted to see, as she closes her eyes one last time, she feels her heart slow, then come to a complete standstill before magically resuming its normal pace. With her heart working again the rest of her body quickly resumes normal function, without questioning what just happens she tries one last time to recover from her downwards spiral and while the downdraft still persists it’s a lot weaker under the clouds than above them. She manages stabilize herself and then tucks her wings to her side until she’s just very close to the ground, then she spreads them as far she and flaps them as hard as her sore muscles let her, the torn muscle fibres burn like liquid fire, she clenches her teeth and powers through it, every single swing of her wings slows her down greatly. She hits the ground too fast for her to absorb it all so her body slams into the mud with a loud splat, the impact forces the air out of her lungs and makes her vision go black, but her bones stay intact. The wind presses her wings into the ground. After a short moment she takes a deep breath and relaxes, she lived, she’s injured but alive. She lies there as the rain pours down and thunder strikes nearby but all this doesn’t bother her, not even the searing pain in every muscle of her body bothers her. When the storm soon passed, she slowly gets up, folds her wings together and staggers away aimlessly, blood dripping from her jaw, she’ll heal her wounds once she recovered.</p><p>The memory fades to black and I find myself floating in her mind again. <strong><em>“And that’s how I nearly died. I still don’t know how I could get so lucky. Ever since that day I always avoid storms, they are too unpredictable to be worth the risk.” </em></strong>I can feel incredible gratitude fill her thoughts as she puts me back into my own body. “Wow, I-I have now words…That was incredibly scary but luckily you survived…” I can still hear the thunder echo through my head, it had sounded like a bomb going off right next to her head. <strong><em>“It honestly wasn’t that scary, by the time I realized I should be scared I also knew that it was too late to do anything, before that it was just another unexpected downdraft. I also got unlucky with the lightning striking me, I carried a reminder of that for quite a while.” </em></strong>I idly put my hand on her right front paw. “What do you mean? What kind of reminder did you carry?”</p><p><strong><em>“I had two large burn marks where the lightning bolt entered and left my body, the scars only disappeared a decade ago. You didn’t feel the burn wounds in the memory because the torn muscles drowned them out.” </em></strong>I nod solemnly, even for them lightning is a very serious threat and still there were humans who would mess around with-it willy nilly. “Where were they?” I ask.</p><p>She lifts her wings a little and points at two spots almost directly opposite of one another near her belly. I run my hand over her scales, I could just barely feel the slightly different texture but looking at them I couldn’t tell the difference. “Seems you got lucky that the current didn’t pass through your heart then.” She nods slowly. <strong><em>“It’s the luckiest I’ll ever be.”</em></strong></p><p>Running my hand over her scales reminds that I had been wondering if they actually feel me touching them, I’m just about to open my mouth and ask when Skaftá pre-empts my question.</p><p><strong><em>“Yes, we do feel it, our scales aren’t much different from your skin, certain parts, like our paws, tail, wings and head are more sensitive while other parts like our backs are less so. Which means, yes, we do feel it when you pet us and yes, we do enjoy it.” </em></strong>Her warm and happy smile is a contagious as ever and soon I find myself smiling like a fool too.</p><p>“Which leaves me with just one more question, how did Scáthán recover so quickly after he healed you? I could tell he was on the verge of collapsing again but then when he went off to hunt, he was walking like usual again.” <strong><em>“Your guess of me giving him energy is spot on. After I woke up and realized what he had done I immediately gave him as much of my energy as I could.” </em></strong>It still weirds me out that she always seems to not only know what I’m currently thinking but also what I thought in the past. Her stomach announces that she’s still supposed to be hungry with a drawn-out rumble, a devious grin spreads over her face again. <strong><em>“How about we continue this chat while I fetch myself some more food?” </em></strong>While she worded it as a question it really wasn’t, she saunters off again and I hurry after her. Sadly, I had already run out of questions, so I just ask her what we were hunting down now. She had apparently found tracks of a herd of deer which she was now pursuing. The herd must have been fleeing from something because we take much longer to catch up with them than she expected, finally she spots them grazing in the middle of a meadow stretching half a mile in any direction, she takes a deep breath of the air to see if there is any competition around and much to our surprise there is a not so faint note of wolf to be smelled. To make sure that the pack of wolves leaves us alone she jumps up into the air and quickly flies over to the deer, the rustle of her breaking through the canopy startles the herd and they run away from her, but it’s no use she quickly closes the gap, takes a deep breath and then unleashes a thick jet of flames from her throat. The flames engulf the entire herd in seconds, she glides on a little further before turning and landing next to the smouldering grass. I hear a twig snap and quiet crunching sounds as the pack of wolves’ scampers away. A giggle leaves my mouth. <em>“Smart move, probably better for them to leave now before they end up as the second course.” </em>I watch her quickly devour her singed prey. Just how much can she cram into her stomach? Once she’s done, she makes her way back to me, I had decided to stay behind because my legs were starting to give me a hard time for walking too much.</p><p><strong><em>“I think I’ll need just a bit more to be full, how are you looking like?” </em></strong>She sounds content and placid. “I’m quite fine, the handful of apples will keep my full for a while. Also, my legs are getting sore from walking too much, I’m really not used to it.” <strong><em>“That’s okay little one, if you want you can stay here, and I’ll go hunt on my own. I’ll be back soon.” </em></strong>While I don’t like the thought of staying behind all on my own, I was sure she wouldn’t go too far away and never truly leave me alone, in the end we had the telepathic connection to keep each other close. I nod quickly. “Sounds good to me, maybe I’ll walk around a little to see if I can find a little more food.” She squints as she tries to recall something. <strong><em>“I think I saw a fruit tree somewhere around here.” </em></strong>She slowly heads left, and I follow closely as always.</p><p>Soon enough she stops and tilts her head in the direction of a short stubby tree full of pears. Quickly I pluck a couple off the tree and try one, they aren’t ripe yet but close enough for me, I turn around and smile at her, then mouth a thank you with my cheeks stuffed with pear.</p><p>Skaftá wraps her tail around me and carefully places me up in one of the trees nearby. <strong><em>“Just in case anything decides to try coming after you.” </em></strong>As she unwraps her tail, I can feel it brush past my cheek, much like a mother may do with her child, then she heads onwards on her pursuit for more food to fill her belly with. I sit up there in the tree, still a little surprised by what she just did but as I think about it, it really makes sense, after all we just nearly ran into a pack of wolves. After a while I decide it’s for the best to just relax up here and enjoy the view, not that there was much of one, the branch she placed me on was high enough to be out of reach for any predators that couldn’t climb but also not high enough to see any further than ground level.</p><p>After I finish the last pear I just sit there and wait, I listen to the sounds of the forest and take in all the different smells.</p><p>Suddenly I hear something that resembles faint human voices, it seems impossible but the closer I listen the surer I am, those are human voices and they are coming closer.</p><p>I consider just hiding up in my tree but I’m sitting too low to hide well so I have to hop down and run for it, by the time I committed to that plan the voices a clearly audible and I can tell that it has to be at least half a dozen, just what the hell are they doing out here? I reach out to Skaftá to tell her, but I find that she’s already on her way though it would be a minute or two before she arrived.</p><p>I take one last deep breath, then I hop off my branch, land on the ground with the grace of a wet towel and run for the hills. Obviously, the sound of me hitting the ground had alerted the group of humans and at least two were running after me, shouting things I didn’t care to understand after me. Apparently, I’m not as out of shape as I thought I was as the shouts grow fainter as I run and just as I think that I may lose them soon my feet catch on a root, I stumble and then crash head first into a tree. Stars dance across my vision and the men quickly catch up, tears well up, not again, not like this. All the memories of previous encounters with men like this come back, the tears flow free now and heavy sobs shake my body all the while I feel like I’m going to throw up any moment now.</p><p>The men had caught up with me and make some triumphant noises as they stand over me, fear has me paralyzed to the point where I can’t do anything but sob occasionally. Then like a ray of sunshine piercing through an endless void, I hear leaves rustle and branches break followed by the ground shaking. Skaftá had finally made it, the men scream and turn to run away but it’s of no use, with one leap she covers the remaining distance, knocking over the tree I had crashed into in the process. The ground shakes and their screams fall silent with a squelching sound, after a few seconds I risk taking a glimpse.</p><p>I see her standing over me to protect me, when she lifts her blood covered paws off the ground, I realize that she must have landed on top of those men crushing them to the point where you could hardly tell that they were supposed to be humans, she had turned them into a puddle of red goo with some white bone fragments and a single eyeball bobbing in them. She licks her paws clean and removes some of the entrails that had wrapped around her claws.</p><p>The rest of the group had caught up by now, they freeze at the sight of a snarling dragon with blood stained claws cowering over me. She leaps forward at one of them, time slows to a crawl and the forest erupts in a cacophony of screams, growls and crashing sounds.</p><p>Two men freeze in fear as she leaps forward, she hits them with outstretched claws, one in the abdomen, one in the chest. As she lands her claws get pushed apart by her weight splitting the parts of them that didn’t get crushed already in halves and thirds. They don’t even get to scream for help, they get killed too fast for them to even realize what was happening, then her head darts forwards, she opens her mouth wide and lets it snap shut around two men that had begun to run away. The one that was fortunate enough to be closer to her simply disappears between her jaws and his disembodied legs drop to the ground. The man further away from her has her teeth pierce through his gut, she flings her head upwards, tearing a chunk out of his hip and sending him tumbling through the air. He cries for his mom in between screams of agony and his blood sprays all over, speckling Skaftá with red spots. She awaits his return to earth with a wide-open maw.</p><p>He disappears in her mouth and tries to squirm his way out, but she closes her mouth just slow enough to not let him escape. He manages to stick out one arm, but she simply bites it off before swallowing him whole. When she leapt forward, she also swept the woman and man that had tried to run in the opposite direction off their feet, breaking dozens of their bones in the process. The woman lies on the ground crying for help while breathing heavily, her ribcage got shattered making her cry harder with every breath, the man got lucky and only had his legs broken so he was trying to crawl away. Skaftá catches up with him with two quick steps and picks him off the floor by his feet, as her dangles out of her mouth he struggles and squirms enough to shear off his legs at the shin. He moans in agony but tries to crawl away again nonetheless, with Skaftá right behind him, he doesn’t get far though as she swiftly picks him up again, this time making sure to grab his hip so he can’t escape again. She moves him around a little until only his upper torso sticks out of her mouth, the man tries punching her to let her go but she only growls quietly. Surprisingly she doesn’t just tear him to pieces like the others, instead she pushes her tongue underneath him and uses it to make him slowly slide into her mouth, once his head slid in, she carefully closes it again and tilts her head back to ease swallowing him whole and alive.</p><p>I watch her shocked yet also amazed, she seems to just be toying with the surviving woman now, who had been watching the massacre this entire time. I hear the woman whimper for help while looking at me, I return her pleading stare with a deadpan look and a slow shake of my head, she begins to cry and tries to squirm away but Skaftá wraps her tail around her and easily lifts her into the air. Her victim screams in agony, probably because of all her broken bones and blood begins to leak out of the corner of her mouth. Skaftá holds her up to her head, glaring at her with fury in her eyes. The woman keeps screaming, fear joining the agony in her voice, I didn’t even know humans could scream that loud but slowly she grows quieter as her lungs fill with blood and the screams turn into gurgling gasps. Skaftá lifts her up a little further and slowly opens her mouth wide, then drops the woman and shuts her jaws with enough force to make a clapping sound. Much to my surprise she doesn’t end the woman’s life by chewing her into mush, but she actually tilts her head back and swallows her whole and alive.</p><p>Skaftá licks her jaws clean as she makes her way over me, I feel her tail wrap around me tightly and she nuzzles her head against mine. <strong><em>“It’s okay, they can’t hurt you anymore.” </em></strong>Her voice runs through my mind warm and soft as she sweeps away all negative emotions as her mind embraces mine. I close my eyes and a last tear runs down my cheek as I just let her take over my mind and body for the moment, if only so I don’t need to relive those memories. I want to stay like this for ever but eventually she withdraws from my mind and the warmth slowly ebbs away leaving nothing but a void that is mine to fill with happier memories. I carefully wrap my arms around her snout and rest my forehead against the tip of her snout, “Thank you, thank you so much.” She gently nudges me and smiles. <strong><em>“Always there for you little one.” </em></strong></p><p>I look around the clearing once more, it looks like a murder scene, the ground had been dug up in dozens of places, the grass isn’t green anymore but mostly red and three puddles of bloody pulp speckle the area. “Do we have a problem now? I’m sure someone will come looking for these people soon. Also did you just swallows those two people while she was still alive?”</p><p><strong><em>“Not really, they were drug addicts and drug dealers, they were on their way to some shack to make and consume some, generally terrible people, no one will truly miss them. Yes, I did and yes she is currently getting digested alive just like you were thinking and yes it’s as painful as it sounds.” </em></strong>She seems completely indifferent to what she just did, much like she does when she feeds on animals. “So, you read their minds? What were they like? I’m glad they are dead, but I still find myself curious.” I shudder as I think about having to watch my body slowly dissolve and the agonizing pain that comes with it. <strong><em>“I won’t bother you with their memories, let’s just say your expectations of them were spot on, raping, murdering, abusive pieces of shit.” </em></strong>She lifts me off the ground and puts me on her back and as she wanders away, she turns back just long enough to bathe the area in bright orange flames burning everything to a crisp. I watch her, unthinking and unmoving, still shell-shocked with what just happened, not because of all the murder I just witnessed, that was fine by me, no the fact that I had almost gotten raped again just breaks something in me.</p><p>Skaftá slowly makes her way back to the clearing we started from, her mind keeps brushing against mine as she watches me, worried because I’m stuck in a catatonic state. <strong><em>“Is there anything I can do to help you?” </em></strong>She had stopped and turned to look at me.</p><p>I just snuggle against her neck, I wished I could just hide from this cruel world, even here, where no humans should ever wander, I still managed to run into the worst of them.</p><p>Skaftá, sensing my troubled thoughts gently nuzzles me. <strong><em>“Don’t worry little one, from now on I’ll make sure to never leave you alone. There will always be one of us by your side.” </em></strong></p><p>Memories of how she had been by my side almost all the time and today demonstrated that she would defend me against anything. I nod slowly, but wouldn’t I be a burden on them, even though they always told me that it didn’t matter, I couldn’t keep myself from feeling bad. She nuzzles me harder and gently nibbles on my shoulder. <strong><em>“Hey now, don’t concern yourself with those terrible things. If you want, we will also teach you ways to defend yourself so that no human will ever pose a threat to you. Maybe you can even get your revenge on those who tortured you.”</em></strong></p><p>Her words are accompanied by visions of me using magic to kindle a tiny fire, as the visions keep coming the spells grow more and more impressive until I can conjure lightning out of thin air just like she did in the amethyst cave, the visions of magic are followed by me performing seemingly impossible physical feats, lifting weights I never dreamt of even moving, running and jumping distances that appear unsurmountable to me right now. Once the visions end, I had nearly completely forgotten about my worries, all I wanted to know was how? How could I become what she showed me? How could I shed this feeble body and become something greater, someone that isn’t left at the mercy of others? Skaftá grins. <strong><em>“Good, good that’s the spirit. Now it will take time, lots of it but trust me it will be worth it. Remember what I told you about us radiating magic and other living beings picking it up? It’s been happening to you too, maybe if you try hard enough, you’ll be able to use it for something and when it comes to enhancing your physical abilities that may just come on its own.” </em></strong>She continues her trek back. <strong><em>“I have a hunch that being around us dragons affects you on a physical level, I don’t know how but it may be related to the magic energy you are absorbing. So, if you just stay close to us it will happen on its own, add some magic and I’m sure you will soon find yourself exceeding what is humanly possible.” </em></strong>She definitely had a point there, even though I never had much strength in my arms I recently found that my grip strength had improved a little. During our walk back I remain silent just thinking about all the exciting possibilities and the thought of just maybe finally getting the revenge that I had been yearning for fills me with determination. As the sky begins to turn orange, we arrive at the clearing, Scáthán was already back and dozing in the sun, enjoying the warm sunrays on his scales. He lazily opens one eye as we approach, then smiles happily. <strong><em>“I was waiting for you two, I see you were very successful.” </em></strong>He lazily gets up and moves over a little to make space for Skaftá so she too may enjoy the last bit sunshine. She lies down just a couple yards away from him and rests her head on the floor, then lifts me off her back with her tail and places me by her side, in the meantime Scáthán had begun cleaning the speckles of blood off Skaftás head, a rasping sound fills the air as his tongue glides over her scales, once he’s done he put his head next to hers resting his neck on top of hers. I sit down a couple feet in front of them and they both fixate their eyes on me, my eyes dart between theirs not knowing if they are just watching me or if they were going to say something. They stay completely silent, even watching their minds I can only sense thy usual flow of thoughts between them. Suddenly Scáthán frowns. <strong><em>“I see there was a holdup when you were hunting…” </em></strong>He sounds very concerned, but I also notice him plucking at something near his teeth with his tongue. <strong><em>“I’ll do my best to help you learn and improve too, you shouldn’t have to fear anything or anyone.” </em></strong>Anger joins his concern. <strong><em>“At least those people got what they deserved.”</em></strong></p><p>He notices me staring at his mouth as he keeps plucking at something. <strong><em>“It’s just wool, I came across some sheep and while they make for some easy prey their wool is probably the single most annoying thing I ever came across.” </em></strong>He growls, frustrated and annoyed. <strong><em>“It just wraps around your teeth and doesn’t come loose no matter what you do, and my saliva only dissolves it very slowly.” </em></strong>Skaftá makes laughing like sound. <strong><em>“You really never learn do you, you could have easily used your fire to burn it.” </em></strong>Her amusement at his misery is obvious and a smirk appears on her face.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“But burnt wool stinks worse than the most putrid rotting corpse and it also tastes really bad.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Scáthán doesn’t appreciate her laughing at him and snarls at her, she’s largely unimpressed by that though. As he snarls, I spot some white blobs at the base of his teeth, it seems like it got everywhere, suddenly I have an idea that sounds so silly I question my own sanity for a moment. What if I just removed it with my hands? Why he hadn’t used magic eludes me, but he probably has his reasons and he doesn’t have any other way to do it. I get up and confidently walk over to him stopping right in front of his head. He seems to be way too focused on plucking away at the wool with his tongue to notice me, so I clear my throat to get his attention. He looks up to meet my gaze. “If you would open your mouth please.” I say trying to seem perfectly calm, collected and serious while my heart quickens, and my hands grow shaky in anticipation. His pupils grow into thin slits as he tries to figure out what I mean, then I feel his mind brush up to mind as he tries to figure out what I want to do. He grins widely. <strong><em>“If you truly feel comfortable with that then I’ll gladly let you.” </em></strong>I take a deep breath, gather my courage and nod. Scáthán slowly opens his mouth as far as his joints let him. I find myself staring right into his oesophagus, if I wanted to I could easily stand in his mouth, towards the back strands of thick saliva connect his upper and lower jaw and below me his giant tongue even from up here I can see its rough surface covered in tiny barbs which probably help with cleaning more than anything as they clearly don’t need them to strip the flesh of their preys bones. I take a quick glance at Skaftás mind to see what she thinks, she seems unsure what to think of it, she wants to be proud of me for having the courage to stick my hands into his mouth, which may just be a more dangerous version of putting my hand in a crocodiles mouth but the same time she also thinks it’s ridiculous. I don’t let that deter me however and look up at Scátháns upper front teeth, since I’m looking at them from slightly below it’s easy for me to see the rings of wool stuck at the base of every single tooth, they seem to be an inch or so in diameter. Carefully I reach out, my heart speeds up even more and I find it hard to keep my hands steady. The texture of it is just as weird, almost disgusting as I thought it would be, a mix of sticky, slimy, soft and spongy, slowly I dig my fingers into it, taking extra care to not touch his teeth as I can’t judge just how sharp they are, then I slowly pull it down. The wool had been weakened by his saliva. To the point where it kind of just disintegrates when I pull on it, so I just end up with a string as wide and long as two fingers. As I’m about to throw it on the ground next to me I wonder how it would smell so I raise it to my nose again and carefully sniff it, much to my surprise it doesn’t smell of anything which makes me realize that his mouth and breath in general don’t smell of anything. After I throw the blob of wool away, I tilt my head up to continue, this will be an ordeal, I could hardly notice the amount of wool I removed. “Just how many sheep did you eat? That’s got to be at least two worth of wool stuck in your teeth, if I wanted to, I could knit a whole set of clothing out of it.” I can feel their amusement fill my mind too. <strong><em>“A dozen or two maybe. Also, I’m sure that wool would make one terrible sweater.” </em></strong>“Maybe…” I grab another piece of wool, my hands are a lot steadier and my heart calmed down a lot, this really didn’t seem so bad. This time I try to get all of it in one go, it kind of works while it still falls apart as soon as I pull on it I manage to remove all the wool from the back side of his tooth so that only the stuff at the front remains, which already begins to slide downwards thanks to gravity. I quickly throw what I have in my hand aside and grab the other half before it falls onto my face. With one tooth cleaned I continue with the one to its left and after. As I pluck away at the wool, I find myself constantly glancing over to the back of his mouth and down his throat, I don’t know why, there was something alluring about it I just couldn’t tell what. About five minutes later I pull the last bit out from his upper front teeth and chuck it aside, by now I was going at it with a lot more confidence, he hadn’t moved at all and his teeth proved to be a lot less dangerous than I thought. Next, I kneel down and start with his lower front teeth, progress is much faster now that I got used to the feeling of it and stopped caring about his saliva getting all over my hands since it had already started to run down my forearms. When I get to some particularly annoying piece, I lean forward to get a better view of it. When I discard it, I feel a strand of wet hair slap against my sternum and my heart stops for a moment, had I really just stuck my head into his mouth? I decide to ignore it and just take better care from now on. Soon I finish his last front tooth and take a step back to check my progress, his front teeth look nearly immaculate again with only a few small bits still stuck in between his teeth. Taking care of those last few bits takes me nearly as long as all his front teeth combined because I need to be extremely careful to not cut myself.</p><p>Once the small pieces are gone too, I continue with his canine teeth, they are much larger than his dagger like front teeth coming in at over one foot each, they start of thick at the bottom and grow into pointy tips, their purpose probably was to pierce the prey and keep it in place. The corner teeth take a lot longer because a lot more wool got stuck on them, the pile next to me nearly doubles in size by the time I finish his 4<sup>th</sup> and last canine tooth.</p><p>I try to crack my knuckles, but my fingers just keep slipping because they are coated in his saliva, the skin even had grown wrinkly already like it does when it’s in contact with water for too long. The sun had long set, but I didn’t care, I was determined to finish this. So I move to the right and start working on his premolar teeth, they kind of look like two tipped versions of his front teeth, the top and bottom ones are slightly offset so that their ends fit perfectly in the gap of the opposing tooth, they are a pain to clean because the wool wrapped around them in such a weird ways that it takes me several tries to get rid of most of it and even then some remains in places I struggle to get to without risking injuries. Eventually though after nearly an hour of plucking tiny fuzz out of them I finish them too. I sigh and shake my arms sending drops of saliva flying, by now his saliva had run down to the sleeves of my shirt. With only about the dozen of his molar teeth remaining I grunt, it had been quite the ordeal, but I felt it was worth it, if only to make me get over my fears. As I continue, these teeth looked different yet again, having three pointy ends each they seem to be made to cut through bones and other hard materials. As I got close to the back of his mouth, I note that it got more and more difficult to reach around as the space grew more confined. By the time I finish his third molar the lack of space was getting on my nerves, I take a short break and just sit down. I had come so close but at this rate it would take me much too long to clean the inner side of his teeth. Several solutions come to mind but none really help with the space issue, then I realize that the only viable thing to do would be to crawl into his mouth, I really don’t like the thought of it, but I also don’t want to give up. To buy me some time to think about it I first finish cleaning the outside of the remaining teeth which is easy enough, then I also clean the inside of those I can reach, by now my shoulders are covered in Scátháns slobber too so at least that wouldn’t matter.</p><p>“Erm Scáthán, we got a problem, I can’t get the wool from some of your back teeth, I have a solution, but I really don’t like it.” I can feel my heart pick up speed again and doubt rises in the back of my head, was I really going to ask him if I could climb into his mouth and trust him to not just swallow me? <strong><em>“I’m interested, what’s your solution?” </em></strong>He seems to already have kind of an idea of what I’m getting at, which really doesn’t surprise me. “Well it would be easiest if would just climb into your mouth and work from there, can I trust you to not try any funny business while I’m in there?” My eyes wander over to his gullet again and visions of him devouring me flood my head. I feel a hard-lump form in my throat and I can already feel myself sliding down to his stomach to get digested. <strong><em>“Don’t worry little one, he won’t dare to try anything like that.” </em></strong>Skaftás voice surprises me, it had seemed like she was asleep for the past half an hour. <strong><em>“I wouldn’t dare indeed, after all who would clean my teeth the next time, I have some sheep for breakfast?” </em></strong>He jokes but I can feel that he means what he said, he really appreciated what I was doing and so far, he had played along very nicely. I take a deep breath and slip off my shirt and pants, I didn’t want them getting soaked and destroyed by his saliva. As the cold air of the night brushes against my skin I shudder, maybe taking off my clothes wasn’t the best idea? After I took off my shoes too, I step in front of his mouth and after a while of thoughtlessly staring into it I bend over a little, my heart races and every single muscle in my arms and legs shakes. I carefully rest my palms on his tongue, it feels soft and squishy and yet still rough, kind of like sandpaper. I sigh. <em>“Let’s do this. No turning back now”</em> Next, I lower my knees until I feel them touch his tongue too, then I crawl forward a little before lying down on my side. It’s surprisingly warm in his mouth, it feels like I was lying under a nice thick blanket but without the weight of said blanket. I find myself constantly having to fight gravity to not slowly slide back down to the front of his mouth, as I struggle, I quickly get myself drenched in his drool from head to toe, which makes my job all the more difficult.</p><p>As I struggle, he suddenly speaks to me. <strong><em>“How about I close my mouth just a little so that you won’t have to fight gravity anymore?” </em></strong>While I hate the thought of it, it would definitely help and at this point it really didn’t matter, he could do with me whatever he wanted so I nod and grumble affirmatively. I grab onto his tongue as he slowly closes his mouth partially, just far enough for his lower jaw to be parallel to the ground again. After a moment I let go off his tongue again finally begin to pick the last bits of wool from his teeth. Scáthán holds perfectly still, if it weren’t for the fact that I could feel his heartbeat pulsing though his tongue I wouldn’t even notice that I was currently lying in his mouth. Luckily his molar teeth are easier to clean and I only spend a couple minutes removing the big lumps of wool and then another ten on the smaller pieces, once I am close to done I notice that I wasn’t feeling nervous anymore, I had kind of accepted that chilling in his mouth plucking wool out of his teeth was a normal thing now and posed no more danger to my health than a Sunday morning walk. Finally, I pluck the last piece from between two teeth. “I think I’m done now… Would you let me out?” He lowers his head and opens it wide again to let me climb out. I begin to wipe the thick layer of slimy saliva off my arms. <strong><em>“Do you need some help with that?” </em></strong>He nudges my back.</p><p>Standing out there in the dark of the night, shivering and drenched in slobber I just nod, no matter what his plan was, everything was better than this. He smiles, opens his mouth a little and proceeds to lick me dry. I welcome the warm touch of his tongue but also at times find myself fighting the urge to lash out, luckily, he is quick to move on when he feels me tense up. Once he finishes “drying” me with his tongue he takes a deep breath and I can see small columns of smoke rise from the corner of his mouth. Warm, almost hot air rushes around me as he breathes out making the last remnants of spit evaporate quickly. He deems me sufficiently dried and then lets his tongue glide over his teeth, he nods with a happy smile plastered on his face. <strong><em>“Thank you so much, you have no idea how good this feels. If you don’t mind you could do this every time.” </em></strong>He sounds absolutely overjoyed but I’m not so sure yet if I want to this regularly, while the thought of crawling around his mouth seems a lot less weird now there is still some part of me that refuses. I make some non-committal noise and put on my shirt and pants again. While I can feel that he is kind of disappointed he decides to not push the issue any further and rests his head next to Skaftás.</p><p>Once I put on my shoes again, I crawl under Skaftás wing and lie down as close to her side, her tail slowly creeps up next to me and then wraps around me forming a nice and warm embrace. I want to say good night to them but before I can open my mouth my eyes fall shut and don’t open again as I had fallen asleep. Today must have been more exhausting than I thought.</p><p>Upon sunrise my parents awaken but let me sleep a little longer before Skaftá lifts her wings a little and gently caress my cheek with the tip of her tail. <strong><em>“Time to wake up little one.” </em></strong>Her voice purrs through my head with a sickening sweetness, even if I wanted to turn around and grumble something at her, I couldn’t her voice left me devoid of any such feelings. “Just how do you do that with your voice? It just leaves me happy and content no matter how I felt beforehand.” I sit up slowly and stretch. <strong><em>“It’s a thing I was pretty good at even as a child, can’t tell you why.” </em></strong>Her voice grows even more sickeningly sweet and happy, it’s contagious and I feel both me and Scáthán minds fill with happiness, as though any negative thoughts cease to exist as long as Skaftá is near us. I feel myself getting lifted up and placed on her back, where she unwraps her tail. “Time to go already huh?” She nods quickly before leaping forward once and then up into the air. I just barely manage to hold onto her neck in the short break between jumps. She quickly gains height, turning back I can see the mess we made out of the clearing, what was once a smooth grass covered circle in the forest is now a mess of mud, tufts of grass, torn out bushes and broken trees. Scáthán follows us into the air soon, leaving another set of brown streaks in the soil as his claws slip when he leaps into the air from a standstill.</p><p>He’s also carrying the box Skaftá dropped two days ago with one of his front paws. It has some damage to it and the bottom is soaked in water but otherwise it looks completely fine.</p><p>I let my eyes wander across the forest, it hadn’t changed at all just as I expected, I can also spot the scorched grass where Skaftá set the deer on fire. Scáthán caught up with us quickly, he seems a lot more energetic still and quickly soars past us. Skaftá growls quietly and I can feel her speed up too.</p><p>As we’re flying a lot lower today, barely half a mile high, I get take a look at our surroundings as we approach the ocean, the moment we reach the dunes, which barely takes us 10 minutes, they turn right and make their way along the shore. To our left the ocean extends all the way to the horizon, even with the air being really quiet, there are still meter high waves crashing on the beach. On our right I see, dunes, tens of meters high, formed by nothing but the wind, protecting the grassland behind them. Behind the fields of grass, the forest begins, first with single tress speckled throughout, growing denser quickly until they form a thick blanket of leaves, hiding the ground beneath them.</p><p>The sky above is still covered by a thick coat of grey and dark blue clouds, rain is basically a guarantee today. With the sun hidden by the clouds, the wind blowing around me and me wearing nothing but my shirt, I quickly feel cold, shivers run down my body and Goosebumps appear on my arms. To keep me a bit warmer I stay as close to her scales as I can, but it does barely anything.</p><p>I shut my eyes and try to ignore the cold as I reach out to Skaftás mind, the instant I make contact with her I can feel her attention shift towards me, and she quickly embraces my mind to see what’s wrong. First my mind fills with the warmth of hers, which then slowly spreads throughout me, surprisingly it feels awfully similar to the warmth of Scátháns mouth, sans his slimy saliva, slightly warmer than the embrace of her tail but not too warm yet, just right for me. The sleepiness comes back right away, and I struggle to keep my eyes open. “Thank you so much…” I murmur sleepily</p><p>Barely still awake rest my head on her neck and watch the ground fly past. Soon I struggle to stay awake with this cosy warmth flowing through my body. <strong><em>“You can sleep Arya, you won’t fall and even if you do, I’ll catch you.” </em></strong>I feel her mind brush against mine, touching mine gently filling me with content and happiness. Even if I tried to respond it was already too late, I fall asleep seconds later.</p><p>A number of hours I can’t put a number on I slowly wake up, I want to try and roll over and nap a little but realize just soon enough that I’m probably still on Skaftás back. I crack open my eyes a little, it appears I hadn’t moved in my sleep, I was still looking down at the ground. The scenery had changed quite a bit, the beach was mostly replaced by rocks and the dunes had turned into rocky hills, slowly growing in height. <strong><em>“Welcome back sleepyhead. Had a good rest?” </em></strong>Skaftá sounds happy and calm as always but I also spot a slight undertone of exhaustion. After sitting up and stretching I take a proper look around. To my left I still spot water, nothing but water, to my right the forest had retreated closer to the horizon as the rocky outcrop expands. “We’re going to stay in the mountains again huh? And yes, I did sleep very well, it’s ridiculous how well I sleep near you.”</p><p>I can sense her happiness growing. <strong><em>“Your mind does feel very at rest whenever you fall asleep indeed. Where we’ll be staying it’s not exactly mountains, more like a cliff. You’ll see soon, it’s only a couple more hours till we get there.” </em></strong>Her exhaustion grows more evident at the mention of a couple hours of flying but she seems sure that this time she’ll make it without crash landing.</p><p>Finally, I look ahead to see where exactly we are headed, from up here it all looks kind of the same, water, rocks, rocky hills, grass and then forest, the ratio of these changing ever so slightly. A couple hundred yards ahead of us I spot Scáthán, he appears to slowly grow more distant. Just as he’s about to disappear over the horizon he suddenly shoots upwards into the sky, gaining altitude rapidly as he slows down. As he reaches the height of his ascend, he tilts himself backwards even further until he’s floating upside down for just a moment before gravity forces him back down to earth. He dives down to approximately our altitude before he moves his wings to divert his fall into more of a steady glide. By the time he came back down we had almost caught up with him. Scáthán glides just a bit ahead of us, still on his back for a little, as he starts losing altitude again, he quickly spins around his own axis and resumes flying as normal. The amazing display of skill has me completely enthralled, tilting my head back and my eyes stay affixed to him, unblinking, for the entire duration of his stunt.</p><p><strong><em>“Show off, if I weren’t so tired, I’d show you how it’s done properly.” </em></strong>Skaftá sounds mildly annoyed but mostly seems to be mocking him. <strong><em>“We will see about that.”</em></strong>  Scáthán answer drips with sarcasm and he quickly twirls around his own axis. <strong><em>“Soon my friend, soon.” </em></strong>She narrows her eyes and blows a quick burst of flames at him. It doesn’t actually do much as it quickly fizzles but it’s enough to scare him. He speeds up to put some more distance between him and her. I struggle to supress my laughter at the two of them “fighting”. After a while of silence, I remember that I had some questions. “Erm Skaftá, I was wondering yesterday, just how much can you two eat? It seems like you just have bottomless stomachs.” My question seems to catch her by surprise as she takes a moment to answer. <strong><em>“Our bodies digest food rather quick, our stomachs don’t stay full for long. It maybe takes about thirty minutes until our stomach is empty again.” </em></strong>“Oh… that’s an unexpected answer but it makes sense.” I think about it for a minute and suddenly memories of the men from yesterday come back. I try my best to push them back down, but my brain ends up getting stuck on how Skaftá said they deserved what happened to them, she gave me some reasons, but I wanted closure. “S-so uhm… You what exactly did those men and woman do yesterday. I imagine it must be bad to warrant what you did to them.” She grunts disapprovingly. <strong><em>“They were really bad, the first three I killed were drug cooks and dealers, not nice ones might I add, extortion was normal for them if they didn’t like you. And what they had planned for you just sealed their fate even more. For the two that I ate alive, they were drug addicts, they went along because they needed some drugs but didn’t have the money for it, what they did have is a daughter, with those scumbags for drug dealers they struck a deal, their daughters’ body for drugs.” </em></strong>I had known it would be bad, but I didn’t expect it to be that bad. Hatred rises in her and my minds, a seething hatred for human kind, while I do feel for the daughter, from the looks of her parents not even a teen yet it’s completely drowned out by hate and anger. While I had felt a tiny bit bad for the couple there was nothing left now. In that moment I make a decision, I will find those that used and abused me, and I will make them pay, I would end them and make them suffer, I stopped caring about vigilantism being a terrible thing. In the end the law had failed me already, humanity as a whole had failed for me and that was when I realized, I had stopped being human long ago. I had walked among them for much longer, but I didn’t see myself as one of them, just a bystander, someone else that didn’t belong. That was the reason I had left civilization behind, I felt like I didn’t belong there, and society had made it clear that I wasn’t the only one thinking like that. The emotions wafting into my mind from Skaftás feel just like mine, I can’t tell why but she feels the same about the situation I had been in, that humanity had abandoned me when I needed it the most and that I deserved better, which was also the reason she picked me up and took me with her.</p><p>I feel a memory from her flow into my mind and suddenly drown out all the rage in me. I find myself in her body on a starry night not too long ago, she’s sneaking through the forest looking for a good place to take off from and suddenly she smells something that doesn’t belong here, human.</p><p>Skaftá stops for a moment to make sure she wasn’t imagining it, then she sets off in the direction the smell comes from. Her curiosity makes her nearly forget to sneak as she hurries through the forest bumping into trees left and right. Soon she finds herself at the edge of the lake adjacent to the clearing I was sleeping on, there I lie on the ground facing the sky, my chest moving as I breathe.</p><p>She freezes for a moment and every sound and sight grows much more intense than before, she can hear my breath even from this far away, she can hear the insects scurrying around, she can even hear the sleeping birds and she can see me as if she were standing right above me. After a short moment she continues her approach, much more carefully though, her paws make not a single sound. As she stands right above me, she tilts her head, wondering just what I was doing here, she closes her eyes briefly and when she reopens them everything seems blurry. Her vision is speckled with dozens upon dozens of tiny glowing dots representing the minds of the critters nearby, some bigger spots show her the position of bigger animals like bunnies and birds that were sleeping nearby and right in front of her where my head rests on the ground she sees the largest blob, my mind. Quickly a tiny translucent blue branch extends from her to me, as it is about to make contact it gets diverted to the right, it begins to wrap around my mind like a snake around its prey. All this reminds me of the memory of how she broke the barrier around my mind just a day later. Once she has ensnared my mind she begins to push on it in an attempt to break it but then she realizes that it might be a terrible idea, she had no clue how my mind may react and while she was almost certain that she would just squash me once she figured out why I was here she wasn’t sure that she should break my mind beforehand, after all sane humans are more fun to play with.</p><p>Instead of squeezing my mind like a sponge she uses the network of tendrils to get a good look at my thoughts and memories, she can see what I was dreaming about that night, funnily enough one of the many dreams that I wouldn’t remember upon awaking. She takes a closer look yet again and under the flurry of thoughts that form my dream she spots the memories of the past week or so, what lies beneath those she can’t tell without more direct access of my mind but what she sees satisfies her curiosity. I just happened to be some poor person who got discarded by humanity and subsequently ran away, she also spots my lack of a will to live and while I didn’t have the strength to go for a suicide I certainly wasn’t worried about my survival, she decides that since I was going to expire soon anyways, she may just shorten my suffering. While she was going to make my death quicker, I was most likely to die of dehydration of starvation which both would make for a long drawn out demise, she also didn’t want to make it too quick, she was much too curious to see how humans reacted to extreme stress. She gently nudges me, much to her surprise I wake up almost immediately and not so surprisingly begin to panic, my smell begins to change immediately, I can’t tell what exactly is different just that she knows my fear by simply sniffing me. What follows is an exact copy of what was etched into my memory during that night just from a different perspective, she keeps messing with me trying to see just how much I can take before fainting all the while paying close attention to what thoughts looked like in those moments. Then as I try to run, she senses some memories from the deep depths of my mind that got thrown to the surface, this wasn’t the first time I was experiencing this much fear, she delays her pursuit for a split second as she takes in the memory. While my mind had stripped it of all visual information, likely as a coping mechanism, she can still tell how I felt and from the sounds and physical contact that I was experiencing piece together what was happening to me. It was in that moment that her plan to end me begins to falter and she feels a small inkling of empathy for me. All this happens in seconds, I barely made it a dozen feet away from her. She quickly pounces after me, swiftly knocking me down again and pinning me to the ground, she wants to know more, just what had happened to me in the past? As I lie there beneath her paw, barely able to move, more and more suppressed memories come back, memories of being helpless, memories of being at the mercy of others, memories of pain, suffering and being broken, it all comes back in those moments. She absorbs every single one of them and analyses them and with every single one her pity for me grows, humanity had shown its most cruel face to me and while I had tried to fight my efforts were futile, when I screamed for help no one listened until I inevitably broke. Even with all these memories coming back to haunt me, my mind is still far from giving out, it seems like I didn’t even care about them or realize they were there, which lines up perfectly with how I remembered those moments between her claws, until now I hadn’t even known those memories had come back. Skaftá decides that she would try to give me a second chance at live, one without anyone around to use and abuse me. Then follows the moment my foot hits her scales. It catches her by total surprise and for just a split second her instincts kick in and she sends me flying into the nearest tree. As I hit the ground with a dull thud, my body a tangled mess with several bones clearly broken, she realizes what she just did. Worry overcomes her and she carefully moves towards me. My mind had grown very quiet and I wouldn’t be long for this world if she didn’t do something. She focuses on my body, all other senses get drowned out as my mangled self-occupies her every thought, then from within her mind I feel something rise, a type of energy that I can only describe as exhilarating. It fills her mind and by proxy my body, she takes a deep breath and then in her mind slowly morphs my body back into how it’s supposed to look like. My limbs just snap into place as if rubber bands were pulling them back into place, my torso contorts as my ribs and inner organs move back to where they belong, halfway through a rustle in the underwood distracts her, the magic energy suddenly flows everywhere, altering thigs in unexpected ways and if she wouldn’t have been so quick to cut the flow it would have probably resulted in some terrible mutations for me. While she didn’t manage to fix all my broken bones, she still managed to get me out of a critical state, stable enough to be transported.</p><p>The memory fades to black and I find myself lying on her back again.</p><p>While I had relived those memories, she had managed to calm herself again and I too had all but forgotten about my hatred for humans. So that was why she took me with her, finally knowing for sure that it was pity and not some twisted, hidden motive was incredibly relaxing for me, while I had mostly pushed my worries of such things aside I still felt it nagging at me, constantly, even after I had felt fully accepted by them not having closure left me wondering. While I was worried about just how close I had been to becoming just another snack for her, I’m glad she managed to find it in her to at least take a look at who I was and why I was there, it was what separated me from all her usual prey, which come to think of it, why did she even care about all that? When they are out hunting, I never saw them exhibit this behaviour. <strong><em>“I’ve found humans a couple times. I treat your kind like this every time. Your reaction in live or death scenarios is much more interesting than in other animals and I just can’t keep myself from playing with them. And when I was younger, I used to play with all my prey, eventually though I couldn’t be bothered and just made it quick.” </em></strong></p><p>I still find myself getting caught off guard by her answering unspoken questions, it’s getting less each time but still I wonder why she does it sometimes but not every time. <strong><em>“Sometimes I forget that you aren’t like us in some ways, that’s when I answer your questions before you can ask them.” </em></strong>I nod slowly, I wonder why I even ask my questions aloud with them around, there really isn’t a difference, it may just be like them pre-empting me on questions, something ingrained into me to the point where I can’t stop.</p><p>I take cursory look at the memory again just to make sure I took it all in, it feels crazy to me that maybe a week ago I wasn’t much more than some potential prey to her and now I’ve basically become one of their children, beloved and well taken care off, heck with them I was in better care than ever before. I could trust them with my life if I wanted to, I could lie in their mouth and all they would care about is making it more comfortable for me. Again, I find myself feeling like I could never appreciate them enough for what they do for me, I wanted to ask them what I could do for them, but I already knew the answer and I agreed with them, yet I didn’t want to accept it no matter how foolish that was. <strong><em>“Well one thing you can always do for us is clean our teeth.” </em></strong>Suddenly Scáthán makes an appearance next to us again. <strong><em>“May I remind you that she wouldn’t have to crawl into your mouth if you could be arsed to actually put some effort into hunting?” </em></strong>Skaftá sounds mildly annoyed with him, almost like she wants to scold him. <strong><em>“It’s not like she didn’t end up enjoying it too in the end, right?” </em></strong>He again begins to pull ahead of us, but this time makes sure to keep his distance, probably to not get flames blown at him.</p><p>I can tell that Skaftá wants to say something, but she too had watched me and seen how my fear and disgust quickly subsided. “I do like it and it gives me something to pay you two back for your efforts, though I do still worry a little about getting swallowed but I’m sure that’s just me.”</p><p><strong><em>“Not so reluctant anymore, now are you? And there is no need to worry about getting devoured, first of all I can control myself rather well and even if you were to end up swallowed, I’ll use magic to keep you safe and get you out again.” </em></strong>I can tell he wants to add something but then bites his proverbial tongue and keeps quiet. “Well looking back at it now, it all seems a lot less bad than it did yesterday, the most uncomfortable part of it was the cold outside, and again it made me feel useful.” I don’t know why but for some reason I liked the thought of being an anthropomorphic toothbrush for dragons, maybe it was because I had been looking for a purpose for so long that I clung to anything and everything. <strong><em>“He also wants to add that you taste pretty great.” </em></strong>My mind freezes, every thought gets halted in its tracks as I try to process what Skaftá said. “T-thanks? Is that a compliment?” I would have much preferred wondering what he wanted to say, what would that even mean? What was the point of that comment? A moment of silence follows where I wait for them to clarify just what the fuck they meant. <strong><em>“Don’t worry Arya, that doesn’t mean anything really, it was just something I noted yesterday. Nothing more nothing less.” </em></strong>Scáthán is the first to break the silence, I can tell he is just as shook by Skaftá blurting that out. <strong><em>“If anything, you could see it as a compliment, if that helps put you at ease…” </em></strong>For the first time words elude him, he wants to say more but this time I know he just doesn’t know what else to say. Silence befalls the three of us again as we fly along the coast, a small cliff had grown beneath us, the waves crashing against it, trying to wear the rock down, can be heard as a quiet rushing all the way up here.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m sorry about that, I really need to keep my temper in check when I’m exhausted. It’s best if you just ignore what I said if you can.” </em></strong>Skaftá breaks the silence again after a while. “It’s okay, happens to the best of us. Why do you keep pushing yourself so hard that you lose control of yourself?” I was mostly over it already, if there was one thing, I was good at it was shoving thoughts aside and focusing on something else. <strong><em>“I may just be compensating for something here, I never was a particularly good flyer, and with Scáthán being an incredibly good one and all my siblings being pretty good too I always felt like I need to push myself harder to make up for my inadequacy.” </em></strong>She sounds very sad and upset, suddenly the happy chipper self that I knew was gone, replaced by feelings of sorrow and failure, to a degree it makes her appear a lot more human than before. “Doesn’t matter to me.” I pat her neck. “I think you’re great at flying and have more endurance than I could ever fathom having.” She murrs, reluctant to accept my words but I can tell that she feels a little better about herself. <strong><em>“We’ll arrive soon.” </em></strong>At the horizon I can see Scáthán spiral downwards over a certain part of the cliff, which had now grown much higher, two hundred feet tall at least if not more, at its foot rocks stick out of the water, covered in algae and barnacles.</p><p>She begins her slow descend by gliding the last couple of miles, in the meantime I watch Scáthán slowly approach the sea and then as he’s very close to the water the black blur that is his body simply disappears in the Cliffside. I find the thought of us living in the side of a cliff intriguing, I wonder if it would also have an exit on the land side.</p><p>The sun had barely passed the apex of its path as the cave comes into view, it’s a huge gaping hole in the side of the cliff, the waves simply disappear in it. Skaftá turns slightly to the left before turning right to approach the cave straight up, as we approach the gaping maw that is the entrance of that cave the waves grow quieter but the instance, we pass into it they amplify many times over.</p><p>She swings her wings forward to absorb the last bit of momentum and then her paws finally make contact with the ground again. After she tucked away her huge wings she stumbles deeper into the cave, clearly near her limit, if it weren’t for the waves drowning out nearly every sound, I could probably hear her breathe. We head straight for a little, the cave rapidly grows smaller until it’s much closer in size to the previous one, then we turn left and finally the sound of splashing water grows quieter. Thanks to the cave facing south, there is still enough light for me to see properly though it does take my eyes a little to adjust to the dark. “Where has Scáthán gone? I thought he’d be waiting for us somewhere near the entrance?” I ask as Skaftá lies down in a little nook that looks almost too perfect to be natural. <strong><em>“He went to check the deeper parts of the cave to make sure we are the only ones setting up shop in here, wouldn’t want any surprises.”  </em></strong>She carefully lifts me off her back and places me on the damp rock next to her. “So, he’ll be back soon I assume?”</p><p>She nods slowly and I sit myself down next to her front paw. We just sit there, listening to the waves and thinking about nothing in particular, her breathing slows down and grows quieter with every passing minute until it completely overpowered by the waves.</p><p>Suddenly her chest begins convulsing and she begins to dry heave, it sounds like she’s about to throw up, I look up at her with worry in my eyes but feeling unable to do anything I just sit there motionless. The shaking in her chest dies down and a squelching noise emanates from her mouth.</p><p>She lowers her head and opens her mouth a little, then sticks out her tongue and out roll the three eggs she swallowed two days ago, completely unharmed just coated in an inch-thick layer of viscous goo. She shudders and shakes her head, then proceeds to clean the slime off the eggs by licking it off. Carefully I take a peek at her mind, I can feel the soreness in her throat, apparently the three eggs got stuck together when she regurgitated them and did a number on her oesophagus and apparently she had lost control of her stomach it ended up producing some gastric juices which meant her mouth was filled with a strong sour taste that grows stronger with every lick. After she is done, she growls quietly and slowly gets back up. I can tell she’s very tired from all the flying, but it doesn’t stop her from lurching over to the caves entrance and cleaning her mouth with sea water, while the salty flavour is not much better it doesn’t burn her tongue as much. While she’s busy cleaning her mouth, I take a good look at the eggs, I lean closer but stay at least a foot away at all times. Two eggs look basically unchanged and while the red one looked the same as well at first I spot some minor cracks at the top of it, suddenly the egg wiggles hard enough to fall over and roll a few feet, I hear murmuring from within it and a clacking sound all too similar to a dragons claws tapping against rocks, then a thunk like sound follows and the cracks grow a tiny bit wider and I tell myself that I saw the  cracked area of the shell move a little, afterwards the movements die down again. Skaftá had returned while I was watching the egg and stood behind me watching as well with her head mere inches away from mine. <strong><em>“Seems like someone can’t wait to get out.” </em></strong>She moves back to the crevice she had been lying in previously and with a heavy thump drops herself onto the ground. <strong><em>“He didn’t really stop trying to break free since we left, I was quite worried he’d hatch during out travel. That would have been rather…inconvenient.” </em></strong>She reaches out with her paw and lazily moves the eggs under herself. <strong><em>“I expect he’ll hatch soon. I wonder what makes him try so hard already.” </em></strong>She rests her head on the ground in front of me and I turn my body to lean against her. “Just how do they decide when to hatch? You told me they are done developing much before they hatch.” I wonder out loud. <strong><em>“I think they can sense when the conditions are right, they, like us, can sense the minds around them and tell how the being they belong to is doing. That gives them information about their surroundings like temperature, abundance of food and other things which they then use to decide whether to hatch or not.” </em></strong>She yawns and I almost end up falling over backwards into her mouth. <strong><em>“Though I do wonder why the other two eggs appear so hesitant.”</em></strong></p><p>She nudges me to get me to move away from the tip of her snout and I happily oblige not wanting to get impaled. “But why did he stop all the sudden? Also how come you know the gender already?” I rest my back against her neck and stare at the opposite side of the cave. <strong><em>“If he’s like Scáthán he probably knocked himself out by throwing himself into the shell too hard.” </em></strong>She smiles wide enough to reveal some of her teeth. <strong><em>“You can tell many things about the body a mind belongs to if you know where to look, as such I can easily tell the gender of my offspring. If you’re curious it’s two males and one female, the female one is in the leaf coloured egg.” </em></strong>She shifts her body a little because the eggs were in an uncomfortable place.</p><p>We sit there, listening to the waves crash against the rock and just staring off into nothingness together, my eyes soon grow heavy as the repetitive noise lulls me to sleep and Skaftá too struggles to keep her eyes open. I wake up again as my head drops forward and my chin hits my chest. Not much time had passed but since I didn’t want to fall asleep just, yet I decide it’s best to get up and walk around a little, maybe take a look at the ocean. It doesn’t take me more than a minute to make my way back to the entrance of the cave, standing there in the middle of it makes me truly realize its tremendous size. It’s at least 600 feet across and 300 tall, it appears to be more of a recess in the cliff than a cave entrance, it rapidly shrinks and just about two or three hundred feet in it had shrunk to a mere hundred feet and change. The ground rises steadily, and I can see a line where algae growth stops, that’s as far as the high tide manages to get into the cave. I stay away from the parts with algae growing on it as they look incredibly slippery.</p><p>After standing there for a couple minutes, gazing off at the horizon and listening to the waves I feel a light rumble in the ground, I assume Scáthán had come back too and had lain down. As I meander back I take some time to take a closer look at the rocks that surround me, they all look weather worn, especially near the ground where the wind and water had the best access, I also spot a couple of way too large claw marks, they could only be caused by dragons, some are nearly as wide as my hands. This place must be popular among them, first the odd shaped crevice now the claw marks, I’ll have to ask why. With the question burning in the back of my mind I quickly make my way back, I turn the corner and as expected find Scáthán lying opposite of Skaftá, he had curled up too and resting his head close to hers. His eye facing me immediately locks onto me as I approach them. “Found anything of interest?” I ask casually. <strong><em>“Indeed, we are the first visitors in a while which means bears have started using the cave as shelter again, I wonder how long it takes them to get curious.” </em></strong>He grins ominously.</p><p>Instead of asking I just tilt my head as I sit down next to Skaftás head. <strong><em>“They’ll smell you and come looking for the source of it and then, then they’ll be in for a surprise.” </em></strong>He lets his tongue glide over his teeth, and I can feel his anticipation. “I assume surprise means they’ll get a good look at your insides?” Skaftá stirs in her sleep and nearly knocks me over.</p><p>Scátháns grin grows wider which I assume to be an affirmation. e licHe l</p><p>As soon as Skaftá settles down again I get up and crawl over to Scáthán, I didn’t feel safe with her moving so much in her sleep. I settle down between his front legs and snuggle against one of his huge paws, he turns his head to face me and we stare into each other’s eyes, unblinking and unthinking. We keep staring each other down for a while, again I lose myself in his eyes, the waves fade away until I hear nothing, not even the blood rushing through my ears, all that exists for me are his large gorgeous eyes. When he finally blinks, I snap back into reality only to realize that this blink was different. There was something missing, I couldn’t exactly tell what though, I wasn’t even sure if he blinked to begin with. I was still too enthralled by his eyes to know. Why does this keep happening to me? Why do I keep losing myself in their eyes to the point where everything around me ceases to exist?</p><p><strong><em>“I can’t tell you Arya, but don’t worry, I’ll keep a close eye on your mind whenever you slip into this trance like state and it goes too far, I’ll bring you back to the reality. And about that blink, you may not have realized but we have two sets of eyelids. One normal one like you that blocks all light and protects the eyeball and another, transparent one. The second set we rarely use, usually while swimming to protect ourselves from the salty water but still keep our vision.” </em></strong>My head slowly bobs up and down as I nod absently minded, his words don’t fully register with me, I was still trying to find at least a tiny clue as to why. My pondering turns up little though, only that their eyes exert some magic attraction on me, whenever I look at their heads, I find my eyes locking with theirs, they seem to experience the same thing but don’t wind up losing themselves in mine. Another thing of note was the prominent focus on their iris and to a lesser extent their slit like pupils, the fine lines of slightly different colours had something to them that I couldn’t break free from. I try to find more clues but always end up returning to these two, while I’m not happy, I eventually give up. Scáthán had been watching me intently this entire time with a light smile on his face. <strong><em>“I think we should get some sleep soon. I have a hunch that exciting things will happen soon.” </em></strong>He cocks his head in the direction of the eggs. <strong><em>“Besides that, I’m exhausted. If you want, you can stay awake, but I recommend you stay close as there are bears around.” </em></strong>Again, I nod slowly and try to get comfortable on the rocky ground.</p><p>I find myself unable to find any remotely comfortable position, while the ground is fairly smooth no matter how I turn, either my neck or my back quickly give me pain, I must have gotten too used to the comfortable embrace of their tail. Scáthán can sense my discomfort. <strong><em>“Why don’t you move somewhere more comfortable?” </em></strong>I mutter some affirmation and slowly make my way around to his side where his tail already awaits me and quickly envelops me, I can’t even finish my last step as his tails wraps around my legs and forces them close together, then he carefully turns me sideways and the coils shift as he moves the tip of his tail under my head. All the tension that had built up while I was sitting in uncomfortable positions on the hard floor quickly leaves me as he gently squeezes me just the right way, making it feel like a massage, and then finally constricts his tail just enough to make it feel like a tight full body hug.</p><p>As a comforting warmth spreads from his tail into my body a content smile grows on my face and while I felt quite awake just a minute ago my eyes begin to feel heavy and my mind gets clouded by the haze of tiredness. All too soon I fall asleep but just before I close my eyes one final time, I see Scáthán move his head close to me, one eye locked onto me. <strong><em>“Sleep tight little one.” </em></strong>Then follows darkness.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Journey Unknown</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I’m not so gently shaken awake as Scáthán unravels his tail and plops me onto the floor, only the tail end of it stays under my head to protect me. It had gotten dark, very dark. At first, I can’t see anything and even as my eyes adjust to the darkness, I struggle to see more than shapes. Suddenly everything grows brighter as if someone was turning up the brightness slider, I try to spot the source of the light, but it just seems to come from everywhere and nowhere. Once I shake my confusion, I try to find out why I was so awoken so brusquely.</p><p>Skaftá and Scáthán are watching the red egg that she must have moved out from under her, it looks like it lies dormant but then it suddenly shakes violently and falls over, again I hear murmurs coming from within it accompanied by scratching and clacking sounds. For a moment it falls silent again before a harsh knock comes from it and this time, I’m sure I saw part of the shell move. Not wanting to miss any second of the baby dragon trying to hatch I stay put exactly where I am and try to blink as little as possible, my heart speeds up as excitement fills my entire self. I have no clue what will happen once he hatches but I’m sure it’ll be breath taking. Again, the egg had fallen silent for a couple seconds, I listen as closely as I can for any trace of a sound coming from it but nothing. Being unable to bear the anticipation I slowly crawl closer until I’m just a couple feet away, just like my parents. From there I can see all the new cracks that had formed in the eggs shell, many are tiny hair fractures, but a few are significantly larger, almost as wide as my pinkie finger.</p><p>The entire egg begins to make creaking and crackling noises, the underside of it contorts making it move just a little, the tiny cracks on the upper side quickly grow wider, then suddenly a single paw covered in tiny red scales breaks through the shell with a snap, it hits the floor with enough power to rotate the egg by 90°. The noises stop immediately, and the paw gets withdrawn back into the egg before some clacking and scraping sounds are heard again, it must be the baby dragon repositioning itself making its claws scrape over the inside of his prison. Looking into the tiny hole I spot a constantly moving mess of shiny red scales, their tone somewhere between crimson and ruby. Time freezes as the baby dragons eye suddenly stares at me through the tiny hole, I can feel my eyes grow wide just like his, he freezes too, if only for a couple seconds, in that short moment I can sense something changing, I can’t tell what but I just feel different, he seems to notice too. Time resumes its normal flow again and he resumes his efforts to break free, but they seem more vigorous. He places what I assume to be his shoulder over the hole, making it almost look like there isn’t even a hole in the shell, just an indentation, then the cracking and creaking noises resume as he presumably pushes his paws into the opposite side of the egg. The cracks grow rapidly and mere moments later the shell gives way, big pieces break free and soon the hole grows from merely palm size to a few inches across. He stops and I can watch him rummage around again allowing me to catch a short glimpse of his blood red wings. He sticks his head out of the hole he created he looks around and again we lock eyes and time seems to freeze, now that I can see all of his head, his fangs are as long as his head is tall, his eyes look just as alluring as expected, I can see a burning curiosity in them. At the same time, I feel a strange mind brush against mine, it feels much younger, more energetic and hectic than those of my parents, it seems to struggle to establish a connection with me as I can only sense short bursts of it before it disappears from my mind again.</p><p>Unfortunately, his shoulders are too wide so he gets stuck but that doesn’t deter him at all, it looks like he’s trying to push his claws into the shell right under his chest as the eggshell begins to deform there. When it gives way his paws slam into the ground and another 6-inch-wide and long chunk breaks off. The impact is strong enough to make the egg roll around again and he ends up on his back. Much squirming and struggling ensues as he tries to get back on his feet, I want to help them but just before I reach out, I decide against it, this wasn’t my place to interfere. If they deemed it necessary Scáthán or Skaftá would. A minute or so passes before Skaftá lowers her head and gently pushes against the eggshell until it rolls around again. The baby dragon slowly crawls out of the hole, it’s just barely big enough for him to fit through, the instant he’s fully out of it he shakes his six feet long body strong enough to send the bits of mucus that stuck to him flying. I shield my face with my hands. Some droplets hit my arms and legs, they feel much like warm jelly, so viscous they almost appear solid, yet they’re wet and slide down my skin like water. Disgust fills me as I shake my arms and legs to get rid of it, then I return my attention to the hatchling. He had just gotten done shaking himself off but Skaftá was obviously not satisfied with the results and proceeds to lick him clean in a not so gently fashion. The poor thing gets pinned to the ground as her tongue glides over his back, up to his neck and then all the way to his head, while he doesn’t audibly complain like Scáthán did in the memories he showed me I can tell from his posture that he isn’t pleased either.</p><p>Once she’s done with his backside, she pushes her tongue under him and swiftly turns him on his back where she continues. He, again, gets flattened against the ground beneath and I make a mental note to never get myself thoroughly dirty lest the same fate befall me. Luckily, she considers her job done afterwards and flips him on his feet again. The little one shivers a little and licks a few spots on his back where some dirt had stuck to him, afterwards he immediately turns to me again. He stares at me and I stare back, as we gaze into each other’s eyes I feel his mind bump into mine again and again, but it can’t seem to figure out how to make a connection. He slowly approaches me never averting his eyes from mine. I slowly begin to reach out to him, time has slowed to a crawl, I can feel every single heartbeat of mine, every muscle movement in my arm as I raise it and every breath I take, it feels absolutely surreal to me. His head approaches my hand, he stops for a second and sniffs it, just barely not making contact. He deems me not dangerous and carefully moves in for the first contact, I just hold my hand still, unable to move.</p><p>Finally, his scales touch mine but instead of the expected smooth and hard touch I feel something all too similar to an electric shock run through my arm. The hairs on my forearm stand on end, my muscles spasm, it travels up my arm and up my neck straight into my head where it arrives at the same time as the pain signals. A tremendous pain explodes in my head, an agony fuelled scream escapes me, my ears ring like something exploded next to me and I instinctively curl up into a foetal position holding my head with both hands.</p><p>The pain is accompanied by a flood of memories, they swirl through my mind like a tornado, destroying the last semblance of order left behind after the pain hit me, I feel just like I did when Skaftá broke my mind, lost, unable to grasp a single conscious thought, helplessly floating through a chaos of memories devoid of any meaning and context. I can feel someone trying to reach me, soon a second mind joins in, I try to respond but my efforts are futile, my self nearly ceases to exist at all in this chaos. I feel like I’m drowning in this flood of thoughts, like I’ll cease to exist any moment now, simply flushed out of my mind by the pain and chaos, replaced by a chaotic nothingness. I cling to the short-lived bubbles of consciousness like a drowning sailor clings to the pieces of a shipwreck in a futile effort to not drown. If I were capable of emotions in those moments, they would probably panic and fear.</p><p>As time passes the tornado of nonsense slows down, the memories assaulting me stop and a semblance of consciousness returns. <em>“What?” </em>Is the first thing that comes to mind.</p><p>In a search for answers I take a look at the new memories that flowed into my mind, the visual part of them is all black, darkness so absolute I could easily lose myself in it, even sound and smell are completely absent, as if they were turned off, the only thing of note in them is a stream of thoughts, it flows fast even for a dragon. The small bits that I do manage to make sense off are all feelings of curiosity and wonder, wonder about the answers to self-proposed questions based on knowledge that must have come from outside of the all-encompassing void. My search for answers is cut short as I suddenly feel Skaftás mind envelop mind, it wipes away the last bits of disorder and anarchy.</p><p>I can feel her worry and confusion. She has no clue what just happened, and it worries her greatly.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you okay? What just happened? Are you hurt? Who did this?” </em></strong>She asks so quickly the words almost overlap. I try to respond but words slip me still, instead I try to dig up the memories of the seconds just before chaos took control of my consciousness. As I relive the moments of the electric jolt running up my arm and exploding in my brain, I can feel her watch with growing concern, she still has no clue what just happened, only that it somehow relates to her offspring. Once we reach the end of the memory, she slowly retreats out of my mind again to think about what just happened, but I can tell she’s still keeping a close eye on me.</p><p>I open my eyes again. The light was gone so it’s hard to make out anything. The hatchling lies right in front of me, it’s head just inches away from my face, it looks at me with even greater concern and confusion than Skaftá. It can tell that whatever just happened to me relates to him, but he too seems clueless. I sit up and rub my temples in the hope to alleviate the splitting headache that I didn’t even notice until now.</p><p>After taking a deep breath I look up to Scáthán, he too looks worried and confused. Finally, I feel ready to speak again with the headache quickly subsiding and the ringing in my ears growing weaker. “I think I’m okay, I don’t think whatever that was did any permanent damage.” I take a look at my hand and indeed it looks completely unchanged. “As to what just happened, I am absolutely clueless.” The four of us sit in silence, Scáthán and Skaftá clearly busy trying to figure out what happened. When I look at the baby dragon again it looks sad, it didn’t mean to hurt me.</p><p>As we look at each other I mouth “It’s okay, I’m alright again, don’t worry.” I was unsure if he could even understand me, much less read my lips but it apparently does something as the sadness in his eyes lessens. In an attempt to help my parents, figure out what happened I turn to the new pile of memories that appeared in my mind, it’s huge, possibly years’ worth of thoughts, all filled with this black empty void. I wonder if they could belong to the hatchling that would explain the absence of sight, sound and smell as he was still inside the egg. Most memories are a rapid-fire string of thoughts that I can’t follow but then one caches my attention, it’s the first one with actual visuals. It clearly doesn’t belong to the hatchling, and upon further inspection I get a hunch that it may be from Skaftá. A sudden shift in view affirms my suspicion as a blue tail and the tips of her blue wings come into view. This must be what they talked about when they said the last year of the dragon being in the egg only served to teach it things. They must have been feeding them memories on how to fly, hunt and many more things. My search is again interrupted, but it’s neither Skaftás nor Scátháns voice that fills my mind, it sounds different, younger and slightly higher in pitch.</p><p><strong><em>“H-Hello?” </em></strong>It says, sounding very unsure, confused and worried.</p><p>“Hello.” I whisper in return.</p><p>The dragon’s pupils grow wide and I notice that all the sudden a third presence had established itself in my mind, it feels much stronger and closer than either of my parents. I carefully approach it and notice that through the connection I can see and feel everything that happens on the other end of it, it’s like a direct tunnel. On the other side I feel a lot of nervousness and perplexity. <em>“Did what just happened hurt you too?” </em>I ask in my head, directing the question at the new presence in my head, I’m pretty sure it’s the hatchling but I wanted to make sure.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No, I only felt a slight shock, but now there are all these memories in me, I think they are yours…and they make me sad.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I can feel the proverbial lightbulb go off in my head, everything makes sense now, to a degree at least. For some reason mine and his minds were incompatible, and we couldn’t establish a mental connection and then when we touched our mind synchronized, exchanging years of memories in an instant and linking us up, maybe that’s why his presence feels different too, my parents had limited for my own sake after all. <strong><em>“These people have been cruel to you, why did they do that, you didn’t deserve it.” </em></strong>His sadness had amplified, he sounded close to tears, if dragons could even cry. <em>“I’m sorry to burden you with those memories…” </em>Tears well up in my eyes and I feel lightheaded as the memories resurface yet again. <strong><em>“No, it’s okay. I can deal with it, but I want to make sure those things never happen to you again.” </em></strong>I can feel an overwhelming determination coming from him, it washes away all sadness and I can just tell he will fight for me to the death. For a second, I consider telling him that he won’t have to, that I’ll be fine on my own but before I can even begin to form words, I can feel a resounding no come from him. <strong><em>“You’re my big sister, no one is allowed to be evil to you.” </em></strong>The moment he calls me big sister I begin to grasp the full extent of how much he cares for me, tears well up in my eyes again, tears of joy, while I knew that my parents cared for me just as much, with him the feeling resonates much more. “I’ll protect you too little brother.” I say with a shaky voice.</p><p>Slowly and carefully I raise my hand again, he steps back a little, worried that he’ll zap me again, but I don’t care, maybe I’ll just have to endure it, or maybe it’s just a onetime thing.</p><p>He senses my resolve to endure whatever comes next and stops backing away, he’s still too afraid to move towards me. I reach for the tip of his snout, extending my index finger towards it, I can feel him tense up as I come within less than an inch of his scales. We both wince when I make contact with him for the second time, scaring each other into jumping back.</p><p>It takes me a second to recover from the surprise, I wait for the next wave of pain to hit me, but nothing happens. I look over to my brother, he stands there, clearly startled too but otherwise completely fine. We lock eyes again and both our pupils grow wide, it was just a fluke, a once off thing. I can feel excitement fill his mind, his big sister isn’t cursed, and we’ll be able to touch each other like normal. Suddenly he leaps forward, paws outstretched towards but the claws angled up so they can’t hurt me. He slams into me full force, knocking me over and pinning me to the ground. His body lies heavy on me and makes breathing hard. Once I regain my composure, I carefully wrap my arms around him, I can feel his hind legs resting on my legs, their claws pricking into my skin, but the pain didn’t matter, it was nothing. He swiftly wraps his tail around one of my legs and murrs happily. I turn my head to him with a happy smile plastered onto my face, he too is smiling happily and proceeds to lick the right side of my face from forehead to chin. I giggle as his rough tongue glides over my skin, if he tried hard enough, he might just tear the skin of my flesh, but I knew he would never do that. I move one of my hands to gently pet his head and he enthusiastically nuzzles his head against it. When I’m done petting him, I place my hand on his back again and hug him as tight as I can. He nuzzles his head against the side of mine and then wiggles his body to make himself more comfortable on top of me. “I’ll be stuck like this for a while, won’t I?” A feeling of affirmation flows into my mind from his and I can feel his head rub against mine as he nods. <em>“But that’s okay, I quite enjoy this.” </em></p><p>I slowly close my eyes, I can feel his heartbeat and the warmth coming off his underside, his breath blowing against my shoulder, hot and humid, his weight on top of me and his claws poking my skin. I begin to pet him idly while I enjoy him lying on me, much to my surprise I can feel him slowly start to purr, the vibrations flow through my body making it resonate, amplifying the feeling even more.</p><p>Not wanting him to stop purring I keep petting him for several more minutes until he slowly grows quieter and quieter until his purr turns into a murr and then into slow, rhythmic breathing.</p><p>At that point I stop and just rest my hands on his back, I’ll just have to sleep like this but that’s okay, I really didn’t want to be apart from him anyways. I hug him tightly and snuggle my head against him, then I yawn and close my eyes.</p><p>Just before dozing off I feel Scátháns mind brush against mine, he feels happy and glad, probably because his offspring and me get along so well.</p><p>With the excitement having worn off for now, I’m back to being sound asleep almost immediately.</p><p>The night continues as normal for now.</p><p>My dreams turn into a blur as my brain process all these new memories, for most of them I find myself standing in a black void idly watching it twist and deform as the emotions of the memories flow through me, while I can’t ever see anything but darkness, I can feel it changing shape right there in front of me.</p><p>Suddenly I realize that I can control the darkness to become anything I want it to be by controlling the memories I recall in my dreams, at first I let them flow, not interfering at all, wondering where they would take me but then one catches my attention, it relates to me, it’s full of wonder and curiosity and while it lacks any indication of when it took place, I have a hunch that it must be from the time Skaftá brought me home. The hatchling must have sensed this strange mind and begun wondering what his mother came home with, he hadn’t had any encounters with strangers’ minds yet, maybe one or two with the fleeting remnants of the prey his parents devoured alive but nothing of substance. His wonder grows as he tries to reach for this strange mind but finds himself unable to contact it or even see what is going on inside it. He keeps trying for a long time but eventually has to resign, for now that is, he is determined to find out what that being is. The memory ends there but I know there has to be more, I keep searching, not realizing just how much I was controlling the dream, I had effectively become its master by now. Indeed I soon find the continuation of said memory, it feels like days have passed and he had noticed that the mind felt different but had not yet dared trying to reach it again, slowly he reaches out again, and again he is unable to establish a connection with it, though he can feel his mother’s connection to it, much to his chagrin he is entirely unable to connect but at least he can now see the memories and thoughts inside of it. He spends the next day’s watching me whenever I’m near enough for him to take a look, mostly at night. His curiosity grows as the days pass, this being was entirely different from him, its memories felt so different, so alien to him, he could never stop watching. While the surface level memories he manages to sneak a peek at during the day barely satisfy his curiosity, he finds the nights much more interesting. Those were the times when this mind fell dormant for a while, likely as I slept, then as I dreamt he could get a look at some of the older memories that got buried, and if the being fell into a nearly comatose state of sleep he could even see the memories that were hidden far, far below, as if they weren’t meant to be seen or thought about. For the longest time he can never catch more than a tiny glimpse of those memories as they lie isolated, near the subconscious parts of the mind, he can tell that these memories tint everything in a dark, grim light, any happy memory that got stashed near them quickly gets tainted by them.</p><p>One fateful night, as the beings mind wanders around its own memories, I stumbled upon one of these, it must have slowly risen to the surface, to the conscious parts of the mind, during the day. The being falls into a catatonic state, horror, helplessness and dread fill every last corner of me, I becomes defined by these emotions, I try to break free, push the memories back down but they have a stranglehold on me, the nightmare drags me down further and further, deep into the territory where it came from and where many more of its kind lie. As the mind is forced relive all these painful moments, overwhelmed by humiliation and powerlessness, he can see them perfectly clear, memories of tremendous trauma, both physical and emotional, inflicted unto this being by its own kind, repeatedly. While he can’t grasp the concept of why these memories hurt it, he can tell how much they hurt me and how they make me struggle to even find a point in continuing to exist. Some of the memories are even harsher than any of the others, they are few and far between but whenever they come back my mind completely freezes up, reverts to a childlike state, the world stops making sense to me, I just wants to leave, go back to somewhere better, leave this husk of a body behind, yet at the same time I also know I can’t, I am not strong enough for even that, I loses hope in anything and everything and while he can’t see it physically he knows it affects in all planes of existence. He wants to help me, these emotions memories have haunted me for too long, and while I have almost fully given up, there is still a tiny spark in me that believes, that one day, one far away day, I may be able to get my revenge, at times this tiny spark is the only thing that keeps me going, from giving myself up to these memories, slipping away into insanity as I surrender myself to them. He wants to help, alleviate my suffering, do anything, yet he can’t, using all his parents have taught him still yields no progress, he eventually realizes that he’ll have to wait until he hatches, maybe with physical contact he could finally do something.</p><p>That was the last of the memories he had a trying to contact me from within the egg. Tears of joy fill my eyes, I could feel it, I could feel how he suffered with me when my past tortured me, I could feel his immense want to protect me, to help me. My lips quiver and as I blink unnaturally hot tears run over my cheeks. When I open my eyes again I find myself still surrounded by darkness, just like I was when watching his memory but it drawn closer and took on a much more threatening aura, what I could previously shape to my heart’s content had grown a mind of its own and I just knew it had only ill intentions, I just knew what I was in for, the nightmares were about to come back any moment now. The darkness, envelops me, grows all-encompassing and before I even feel any of my memories, I already lose all will to live, I didn’t want to live like this, I was broken, flawed, beyond repair, why did I even keep trying? Even with these immensely powerful beings around me, protecting me from all physical danger, they couldn’t protect me from the old ghosts that haunt me in my sleep.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Arya!” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Suddenly I hear the hatchlings voice ring through my dreams, the darkness trembles and withdraws an oh so tiny bit.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Arya…”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>His voice grows closer, the darkness grows more distant, he must be near.</p><p>I reach for where I presume him to be within the void.</p><p>As my fingers touch the emptiness it <em>splits, </em>makes way for my hand and I feel something <em>touch </em>me, it’s not a proper physical touch but much rather an emotional one. The darkness scatters immediately, leaving me standing in a truly empty void, there was nothing around me, even the darkness felt empty. Then before me appears a blurry red shimmer, it flickers, as if it was trying to exist. I kneel down and reach out to touch it, when I touch it a blinding flash of white with a red tint burst from it. Everything I see looks hazy for a moment. Through the haze I spot a shape all too similar to the baby dragon that had just hatched.</p><p>Once the mist clears his shape grows more defined until I can see every tiny detail of his body as if I were looking at him in the real world, though I had all but forgotten that this was merely a dream.</p><p>He looks up at me with his glowing red eyes, his black pupils cutting through the brilliant ruby red of his iris like crack through existence itself.</p><p>We stare into each other’s eye for a while, the nightmares that had haunted me just seconds ago are completely forgotten, finally I wasn’t alone anymore, I had someone to fight at my side, to help me, to protect me even here in the realm of dreams.</p><p><em>“But how?” </em>I wonder. I stare even deeper into his eyes, as if they may yield the answer to my question. <strong><em>“Does it matter? All that matters is that I am here, I will always be here for you. I can be everything for you up here, but I will always be one thing and that is your brother, the one you can always rely on, the one to always stand at your side during good and bad times.”</em></strong></p><p>He, or at least the image of him in this dream, stands up on its hind legs, he stands just as tall as I am. He takes an awkward step forward and reaches for my shoulders with his front paws, he’s just half a foot short of reaching me.</p><p>I take a careful step forward, as soon as my body comes into his reach, he embraces me with his front legs and easily pulls me closer, I return his hug by wrapping my arms around him and he rests his head on my shoulder. Even though it’s just a dream I can still feel his scales touch my skin, the sensation feels too real to be just a dream. Slowly he spreads his wings and then drapes them around us, even though he’s not even a day old and still tiny compared to his parents his wings are still enormous, they may just span thirty feet when he fully extends them. As his wings envelop us everything else around me in this dream land disappears, stops mattering and thus may as well not exist, all that mattered was my brothers embrace.</p><p>The nightmares try to come back yet again but they simply bounce off of my brother like a rock bounces off a knights shining armour. We begin to fall, yet as we tumble through the emptiness of my sleeping mind, I don’t feel any fear, no worry of where the fall may take us, I trust him to protect me from all the evils that lurk within me, he gives the ember of my dying hope new strength and a tiny, fragile flame flickers back into existence to light up the nothingness around us. The flame of hope would have been extinguished immediately if it weren’t for him. With him holding me close, offering me safety and comfort, the flame quickly grows strong enough to not be easily blown out. In that moment I began to feel hopeful again for the first time in a long time, while I hadn’t needed to worry for the past week or two with his parents near me, I still always felt like I was at the worlds mercy and if were to decide to take his parents from me there was nothing I could do but he gave me hope, the hope that if I tried just one more time and if I tried hard enough I could become my own lives master. I wouldn’t have to be defenceless, helplessly drifting through reality getting thrown here and there by the waves of fate. He made me feel like I could stand on my own, stand up to fate itself, stand up to my enemies, to not be useless, to do what <strong>I </strong>wanted.</p><p>The flame of my hope had turned into a bonfire burning bright and hot, filling the dark void within me with a comforting light and warmth.</p><p>Our fall suddenly stops and as my brother’s wings part behind me, they reveal a vast grassland extending all the way to the horizon in all directions, the infinite blue sky expanding above us has a flawless azure blue colour, it reminds me of Skaftás eyes. The blades of grass unnaturally thick and long, they tickle my calves and the soles of my feet.</p><p>He lets go off the hug and so do I “Where are we?” I wonder with a quiet, meek voice.</p><p><strong><em>“We’re still in your dreams but we’ve left behind the eternal darkness of your nightmares. They shall never come back as long as I am near. Which I will always be.” </em></strong>He extends one of his front paws in my direction and I gladly take it, it feels so different to hold a dragon’s paws instead of a human hand, but I couldn’t care less, the dragon attached to this paw cares more for me than any human ever did. <strong><em>“These dreams can be everything you want them to be.”</em></strong></p><p>The hand holding his paw begins to tingle, the feeling slowly creeps up my arm and spreads through my chest and my heart begins to quicken. Confused I look over to my brother, what was this feeling? He returns my looks with something I can only describe as a shrug.</p><p>The tingle spreads further and further throughout my body and I start to feel a strange and powerful energy fill me, it makes me giddy, like a sugar rush, I want to do something.</p><p><em>“This place can be anything I want huh?” </em>I close my eyes and reach for the memories deep within me, subconsciously I grip my brothers paw tighter.</p><p>With the flame of hope reignited a lust for revenge also joined it, since I finally felt in control I had begun to yearn for payback, to finally make my tormentors feel like they made me feel. While a trace of refusal remains, vigilantism shouldn’t be the answer to anything, it’s quickly swept away when I remember how any and all systems in place to protect me from those things failed me spectacularly, even backfiring at times, making my situation worse.</p><p>I find what I had been looking for, a memory of my former school bully, he wasn’t the worst honestly, but he had been a nuisance for years, he was the reason I stopped eating at school, the reason I stopped trying to make friends at the age of eleven. There were many I hated more but I didn’t dare face those terrors yet.</p><p>While the memories of encounters with him used to be enough to send me into a downwards spiral, now I didn’t fear them anymore, any anxiety about them is gone.</p><p>I try to recall the most accurate picture I can draw of him. I can see him slowly appear in front of me and when I open my eyes again, he stands half a dozen feet ahead of me, his empty dirty brown eyes staring at me emotionlessly. I’m astounded by how realistic it looks, the illusion looks like a carbon copy of him, exactly 5”6’ tall, overweight and short trimmed hair with a hint of beard stubble on his face, his lardy arms hang down his side, getting pushed aside slightly by his belly fat bulging over the waistband of his trousers, no matter where you look all you see on him is fat, now he wasn’t obese, yet, but had enough fat on him to make every single bit of him look round. He never looked too good but what he lacked in the physical department he made up with his charm, his fake, poisonous charm. He used it wherever he could to divide people, it gave him some sick, twisted pleasure and he thrived off it. He chose his victims seemingly arbitrarily and I had always been a favourite of him.</p><p>Why me? I didn’t really have an answer to that, the best guess was that he felt intimidated by my looks and size and when I turned him down, he decided to destroy me to the best of his ability.</p><p>
  <em>“You! You started it all, life could have been so much easier if it weren’t for you, you stupid cunt.”</em>
</p><p>With every passing second the anger within me grows until it blinds me, makes me lose all reason.</p><p>I let go of my brothers’ paw, take two quick steps forwards, covering must of the distance between me and him, then I swing my left fist at his face with all my might. It makes contact with his cheek and his stupid fat face easily gives way, his head spins around as his neck tries to absorb the energy from the impact, his entire body keels over and falls into the foot-long grass face first, a rustle and a dull thud announcing his impact.</p><p>Though it was merely a dream I felt elated, a devious grin spreads over my face, this was great.</p><p>I turn to look over to my brother, he had dropped down to all fours and had a similarly devious grin on his face. I can see him prepare to pounce, he leaps forward, easily covering the six or seven feet between him and where the bully lies, I didn’t even remember his name anymore, his body disappears under my brother for just a second, I hear the sound of tendons snapping and muscles getting shredded. My brother tears my bullies gut wide open, scattering his guts all around the grass and colouring it a deep red, then he sinks his teeth into the bodies neck and easily rips the head right off. He steps back and looks up to me, still grinning at me with blood covered teeth. I should probably feel remorse or pity for this lifelike imitation of a human that just got butchered by my brother, but I feel none of it, just satisfaction. I smirk and nod. <em>“Good job.” </em>I glance at the mess he made, he just treated him like he would any other prey, maybe he was even crueller than usual, I wasn’t sure.    </p><p>I look up from the bloody corpse to the horizon and notice that it seems to have shrunk, where previously the green expanded for miles it now turns hazy and blurry just dozens of feet away, I look down to my brother again. <strong><em>“You’re waking up soon sister but don’t worry I’ll protect you in the real world too, just like I did here, we will fight together till the day we die.” </em></strong>I nod slowly and everything begins to fade away.</p><p>When I blink, I suddenly see the grasslands replaced by a blurry version of the cave, every blink makes clears my vision a little bit.</p><p>I stretch and yawn widely, then as I lower my arms again, they bump into my brothers’ side, he was still lying on me and hadn’t moved an inch. I hug him again and turn my head to the left, his head is too close to me for me to see it clearly, but I can tell that he’s still asleep but in the back of my mind I can tell that he won’t be much longer. As if on cue his eyes snap open, his pupils rapidly contract to adjust to the light of day, he blinks a few times in rapid succession and then yawns while licking his teeth. He shifts around lazily, and I flinch as his claws scratch my skin. He flinches too the moment I feel the pain, he quickly unwraps his tail and carefully steps off me, all the while he watches me with concern in his eyes. I just now realize how heavy he actually was, breathing feels much easier and it feels like heavy rock got lifted off of me. With a groan I slowly raise my back off the floor and immediately regret it, lying on the cold floor for the entire night left every single muscle in my back sore and stiff, every inch of it burns and stings. I grimace and rub my back in an attempt to alleviate the pain. “Let’s not do that again any time soon.” I grumble quietly.</p><p>My brother makes some said noise and looks down at the ground. <strong><em>“I’m sorry sister…” </em></strong>His sadness fills my mind too, as if they were one. “Don’t worry about me too much, it’s not like you hurt me intentionally.” I move my back carefully and while it stings hard, it helps alleviate the pain greatly in all but a few weird spots around my shoulder blades.</p><p>Once I finish my little spiel, I look over at him and slowly reach out to pet him. “Maybe we can sleep like this in places where the ground isn’t so hard.” He happily pushes his head against my palm and nods as my fingers glide over his scales. While I rub his head, I look over my legs, I spot a set of 4 holes ripped right through my jeans on each leg right where his paws had been during the night. The fabric around the holes has a light red hue to it and the holes itself are filled with brownish red scab, his claws must have turn through my clothes and penetrated my skin during the night. I stop petting him and carefully slide my hands over my back and as anticipated find another pair of 4 holes punctured into my skin.</p><p>Luckily the wounds aren’t big, they look like large scratches and I wonder why I didn’t wake up from the pain. I turn my view towards my brother again to see him inspecting his left front paw, his claws are stained with blood that can only be mine and some even made its way onto the underside of his paw. “We’ll need to figure something out for that, otherwise you may actually end up tearing off a limb of mine in your sleep.” He nods solemnly, I can feel his sadness and worry, he’s sad that he won’t be able to snuggle with me as with sleep in any way we want and worried because if he already hurts me in his sleep, how bad would it get if we get to play fighting? “I’m sure our parents can help us figure something out.” I say in a soothing tone, I knew they could easily fix me up so I wasn’t worried about the scratches and seeing how easily they manipulate reality into what suits them, making my brothers claws not hurt me should be child’s play for them. After scooting close to him I put my right arm around him and hug him close. He stretches his neck and gently nuzzles my cheek, then carefully licks it, the sensation of his tongue rasping over my skin sends a cold yet comforting shiver down my back, afterwards he rests his head on my shoulder. As we sit there just enjoying the touch of one another I realize that I haven’t seen or heard our parents ever since he hatched, usually I never lost track of them for more than a couple minutes and even then, I could always sense their minds. I look over to where Scáthán would be sleeping and spot nothing, just grey rocks. Turning my head 180° I find Skaftá lying where I expected her to be, curled up into a tight ball, fast asleep. I wonder where Scáthán had gone, possibly hunting but I wasn’t sure, not that it worried me much, it had happened before, and everything was fine in the end. Since nothing was going to happen anyways, I figured I’d try to have some fun. My brother can sense my plan and pre-empts me by pushing into me strong enough to topple me over, before I can even start to recover he’s right on top of me, pinning my arms to the ground with his paws, his tail constricts the movement of my legs and his hind paws put enough weight onto my abdomen that I can barely move it. He spreads his wings halfway to make himself look even bigger and playfully growls at me. I realize I never even stood a chance, even if I could knock him over I could never pin him down, even just after hatching he was much too strong for me but that didn’t demotivate me like I expected, no I saw it as a challenge, to get stronger until I could at least do something against him but even that was a foolish assumption and I knew it deep down. He would grow much too quickly for me to ever compete with him in any regard. I’m snapped out of my thoughts by him licking the entire right side of my face from chin to hairline, as if were tasting some prey. A grin grows on his face, revealing his impressive set of teeth, they look exactly like Scátháns, just much smaller. He sits atop me content with himself and not intending to let me go, I can feel that he planned this as a punishment and to assert his dominance over me. His mind feels busy as he soaks in the pride of overpowering his older sister so handily, I use this short moment to strike back. He had stopped putting much weight on my arms so I could easily free them and then use all my strength to shove him off of me. He yelps as he’s pushed off me, in an attempt to hold on with his hind legs he digs his claws into my shirt, completely shredding it. They also cut my stomach like hot daggers, luckily, they just barely make contact, enough to pierce the skin but not enough to seriously threaten my life. I convulse as the pain hits me. Adrenalin quickly numbs the pain enough for me to think straight again. My brother, having landed on his back, struggles to get back on all fours and I use his moments of immobility to leap on top of him. I somehow get past his claws unscathed and drop onto him. The impact makes the cuts split open and another wave of pain hits me. We both growl in pain, he because I slammed into him with my entire body and me because of the wounds. I power through the pain, grab his paws while he’s still stunned, pin them to his chest and hold them down with all my strength. At the same time, I dig my knees into his crotch, he struggles and squirms under me, but his hind legs are too inflexible to easily reach me to push me off. His tail proves too weak to pull me off either. As he struggles, I can feel my own blood run over my skin and drip off onto him, it feels so hot, almost scathingly so.</p><p>Suddenly he manages to push one of his hind paws under me, since his hind legs are so much stronger than his front legs, he sends me flying through the air for a good three feet. I groan with pain and hold my stomach as I curl up into a ball, blood coating my hand and seeping through my fingers. When he kicked me off the cuts must have torn wide open and gotten deeper as they now bleed even more. The slow drip had turned into a steady flow and the pain moved deeper, now residing in my abdomen. While the cuts still hurt the main in my gut far outshines it, it feels like an icicle is stabbing into my intestine.</p><p>My brother manages to roll around onto his paws again and when he sees me curled up on the floor quickly runs over to me. I can’t focus on anything other than the pain in my abdomen, it’s getting worse by the minute, he might have ruptured an organ or two. He runs around me trying to do something to help me, I can even feel his mind in mine trying to take some of the pain away. The noise of us “playing” almost wakes Skaftá up, she stirs in her sleep, it couldn’t be long until she wakes up. It gives me hope that my agony will soon be alleviated. Suddenly my brother releases the most pitiful sounding yelp, a cry for help as he has no idea how to help me. His cry makes Skaftá snap awake in an instant, her eyes dart around the cave, looking for a threat. When she sees that we both aren’t in immediate danger she visibly relaxes but still quickly gets up and hops over to us. Her eyes grow wide when she sees the small puddle of blood that had formed under me, she glares at my brother and then carefully nudges me onto my back with her snout. I force myself to lie down flat and move my hands aside. She gently nudges my tummy. Her touch makes me wince, but I keep myself from moving too much. Her eyes begin to glow, and every inch of my body begins to itch, I dig my fingernails into my hip to keep myself from scratching myself bloody. I watch her, to distract myself from the itching and because I was curious. She stares at the cuts with her eyes glowing bright, the itching gets stronger and stronger and suddenly the skin around the wounds begins to bubble and turn liquid, then flows over the flesh and “cools” down again leaving completely untouched skin behind. As soon as the big cuts are healed the itching gets a lot lighter and only sticks around on my upper back and on my thighs where my brother had punctured my skin during our sleep. She lifts her head and the glow in her eyes dies down. I quickly run my hand over the freshly healed skin, it feels perfectly normal, as if nothing happened. Next, I check my back and thighs, both feel spotless. A sigh of relief escapes me, and I reach out to hug Skaftás snout, she gladly takes me up on my offer and nuzzles her head against me. <strong><em>“What the hell happened here? I can’t imagine he intentionally hurt you? Did you end up playing too rough like I think you did?” </em></strong>She doesn’t sound angry or upset, just glad that she was able to patch me and that there was no lasting damage. Before I can answer my brother speaks up. <strong><em>“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hurt her…I got carried away when playing with her and forgot how fragile humans are.” </em></strong>His sadness never truly left my mind, the pain just overpowered it and now that it’s gone, I can truly feel it again.</p><p>Skaftá shakes her head. <strong><em>“You need to be more careful, both of you.” </em></strong>She turns her head to face me. <strong><em>“You always need to remember that he’s young, he doesn’t know his strength, also why do you think Scáthán and me never bring our paws close to you? Exactly because we might just slice you open by accident.” </em></strong>She faces my brother again <strong><em>“And you need to be more careful with your sister, she’s a human not a dragon, she has no scales to protect herself from your claws and teeth, and even then, you are way stronger than her.” </em></strong>We both feel like little children getting scolded for breaking something, we both look down at the ground and I begin to fiddle with my thumbs, she was quite right, I should really be more careful around him, I’m lucky that she was around to heal me, otherwise I might not have made it. The sheer thought of what might have happened sends a chill down my spine.</p><p><strong><em>“Now don’t be so down about it, nothing happened in the end, just think of this as a lesson learned.” </em></strong>Her cheery voice already makes me feel happier. <strong><em>“Besides, I notice you both thought about using spells to protect Arya from getting hurt, I’m sure we can work something out.” </em></strong> </p><p>She slouches down right where she was standing and rests her head next to me, her ever watchful eye fixated on me. My back complains again when I sit up and a groan leaves my lips, sleeping like that was a terrible idea. I sit in silence as I try to ignore the pain from my back, it’ll go away soon enough but until then I’ll prefer to hold still. My brother lies next to me on the floor, still upset with himself over hurting me, I gently rub his head and smile at him warmly. “Everything is alright again, being upset about it now doesn’t do anything.” He enjoys the pets and his mind feels more cheerful already. As I pet him, he slowly gets back up and snuggles up to me, nearly knocking me over again. I manage to hold onto his neck and pull myself upright again before falling against Skaftás head, he looks at me with worried eyes but as he sees my unchanged smile he relaxes and resumes snuggling up to me, just a lot gentler. He wraps his right wing around me and rests his head on my shoulder while I pet his left side, the skin of his wing feels soft and kind of rubbery yet also warm and comforting, like a blanket. Curiosity rises within me, I wanted to know more about the texture of his wings and maybe I could even see why they felt so odd? He senses my curiosity and through our telepathic connection I can feel how he permits me to touch them. It’s a bit odd how easy it is for me to tell what he thinks or feels, it goes effortlessly all the time, unlike my parents where I need to consciously think about it. Cautiously I move my right arm so that my fingertips touch the inside of his wing, it indeed feels like soft rubber, when I let my finger slide over it, they slip over it as if it were my own skin, I can’t feel any texture to it, just a perfectly smooth surface. As my fingers explore his wing he begins to wriggle and makes noises that sound like a mix of laughter and growling. His mind is paralyzed trying to make sense of what he’s feeling, I know this feeling too well and it’s that of getting tickled in the sport where it’s the worst. I stop immediately, I can barely keep myself from kicking people when they tickle me, so I don’t want to find out how he reacts and touching his wings wasn’t that important to me. He calms down again and moves his head to itch the part of his wing that I just touched, in silence we both agree to leave his wings alone and I make a mental note to never touch my parents’ wings either.</p><p>A sudden change in the sound of the waves catches out attention, it sounds as if something big landed where the waves break. Scáthán soon trots around the corner, his mouth full of something.</p><p>The second he lays eyes on me he freezes and the corners of his mouth drop, I look at him with bewilderment, then look down at the floor, to spot a sizeable puddle of blood around me and that my jeans and shirt are both coloured a deep red, it looks similar to a crime scene. Since I seem to be fine and not majorly hurt, he puts his worry aside and continues his way over to us. I can feel him examine my memories, when he gets to the moments, I got injured he slowly his step and I can feel the pain resonate with him. With his curiosity satiated he lies down next to Skaftá and opens his mouth to let a bunch of fish slide out. They’re all around a foot and a half in length, their scales are of a greenish colour. Maybe he caught a school of Bass? The look and size of them makes it likely.</p><p>My brother wastes not a single second and begins devouring them with incredible vigour, completely foregoing chewing and just using gravity to force them down his throat, it reminds me of how birds eat fish. I can even see the bulge in his throat as he swallows them whole. It takes him no time to make it through half a dozen, by then his body forces him to slow down as his gut quickly reaches maximum capacity and finally, he snags one more fish from the pile to slowly nibble away at for the time being. He lies down next to me again and holds his meal with both front paws, then slowly bites the head off and idly chews on it. In the meantime, his mother moves her head over to the seemingly unchanged pile of fish and opens her jaws wide. I get a good look into it as she closes her mouth, engulfing pretty much all of the food. She lazily chews two or three times before swallowing and resting her head on the floor again. In the span of just a couple minutes the two of them made all the fish disappear, leaving only a couple scales, a few single fish that slipped through Skaftás teeth and a wet spot on the floor.</p><p>Not wanting to go hungry I snag myself one of the couple remaining ones, only to realize that I have no way of preparing it. With food so close, yet so far, I realize just how long it has been since I last ate, and my stomach audibly complains. I shoot Scáthán a pleading look, so far, he always had an idea to help me out. <strong><em>“If you find a way to gut it, I’ll cook it for you.” </em></strong>He says as our eyes meet. While I have no idea how he intends to cook it, I really didn’t care how. Looking around I spot nothing that I could easily use to slice the fish open but then my eyes fall onto my brother who was still busy with his dinner. His claws might be the right size for the job.</p><p>He picks the rest of his fish up and quickly turns it into mush before swallowing, then lifts one paw off the floor and points his claws at me. I take a second to realize that he’s offering me to use them as a cutting tool. Once I understand what he means I carefully poke the tip of one claw through the underside of the fish between its gills, then I carefully raise it to let his talon slice through it. In the beginning it doesn’t go too smoothly, and I take a few tries to get a good cut going but one it started I just need to steadily keep going for it to work. Soon his claw cut through the entire fish, leaving just the back of it intact. Carefully I split it open and most of its guts just spill out then and there. My brother promptly picks them off the floor and eats them without hesitation, seeing how he seems to like fish innards I pluck the last few organs out and throw them in his general direction.</p><p>He catches them with surprising accuracy and speed.</p><p>With the fish sufficiently gutted I look up to Scáthán again. He smiles and moves a flat rock in between us with his tail. Next, he takes a deep breath, smoke begins to rise from his mouth and a second later bright orange flames erupt from his throat. The roaring flames engulf the rock and the ground around it. Sizzling is heard as the water rapidly evaporates and cracking noises echo through the cavern as the stone heats up. The heat makes my skin tingle and I back up a little to prevent getting burnt. My brother watches his dad with increasing curiosity, and I can feel how he tries to imitate him, but he lacks the skill to spew fire just yet and only ends up nearly regurgitating his food.</p><p>Scáthán shuts his mouth to cut off the stream of flames and once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I see that the rock had turned a dark shade of red, putting it somewhere in the neighbourhood of 550°C (1000°F) though it rapidly cools down and loses its glow. I quickly place the fish on top of it, first on the side with the scales. It hisses and pops violently as the water instantly begins to boil, soon the stone cooled enough so that it only lightly sizzles. After a few minutes of intently staring at my meal I carefully flip it around move it over a couple inches where the rock still glows oh so slightly. Again, fierce crackles erupt from the fish’s meat as it gets cooked.</p><p>Soon I deem my dinner done and carefully pluck it off the still hot rock, some of it got charred but those bits are easily scratched off. Content with the slightly brown tint of the fish I happily chow down on my dinner, only to frown with disgust as the fishbones tickle my gum and slip between my teeth. I sigh and put my food aside for a moment as I pluck the fishbones from my teeth, as I dig around my teeth my brother inspects my food with incredible curiosity. Keeping one eye on him as I continue, he pokes it with his claws, trying to get the fishbones out. Soon he figured out that most of them are connected to the backbone of the fish and carefully begins to tear it out.</p><p>With the last fishbone removed from between my teeth I reach out to pick my food back up</p><p>This time I’m much more careful when taking a bite out of it and much to my surprise my brother managed to remove almost all the fishbone from it, I thank him internally and I watch him for a reaction. As expected, a wide smile spreads over his face and he chirps happy yet deep squeak.</p><p>Now that the fish is actually edible, I savour its flavour, it tastes great, just like I remember fresh fish tasting, although it is a little burnt, I barely notice it. I can’t stop myself from smiling, while the meat previously was nice it was getting rather boring, so the fish was a welcome change. Soon I get over my fear of biting into more fishbone and begin to eat a lot quicker, to the point where I almost abandon chewing in favour of filling my stomach just a little quicker.</p><p>Before I even got through half of one of the halves, I start to feel rather full and once I reach two thirds it feels as though my stomach is going to rupture any moment now. Defeated I put down the rest of it and sigh, this was way too much for to reasonably finish. I notice my brother eyeing the chunk I was still holding, he wanted to know how it tasted as I enjoyed it a lot. I extend my hand towards him and he quickly extends his neck and plucks it out of my hand with surprising strength.</p><p>He actually takes the time to chew before swallowing and through our connection I can feel him relish the taste of it. In the blink of an eye he grabs the remaining half and swiftly gobbles it up too. The moment he’s swallowed he sighs and licks his chops, I can feel that he’s just as full as I am. Lazily, he rolls onto his back and rests his front paws on his round belly, I can easily tell that it looks bloated from all the food he ate. Now that both of us were done eating and our bodies were busy digesting the early signs of food coma set in, my eyes grow heavier by the second and I can tell that he feels the same. I lean over and rest my head on his stomach, one ear pressed against his scales. Intently, I listen to the churning and gurgling noises coming from within him. He shifts around a little until he feels comfortable enough, once he settles down it’s my turn to get comfortable which isn’t too hard as I just rest my head on his tummy and shove one of my hands under my shoulder to make up for the height difference between the ground and his underside. He carefully nozzles his head against my belly in return.</p><p>After closing my eyes, I feel myself quickly drift off to sleep, one of the last things I notice is that our parents are talking about who would be gathering fire wood and who would stay behind to watch us. I don’t catch the end of their conversation as I fall asleep, this time I sadly don’t have any control over the dreams hat follow, all I can do is watch. I dream of a school of fish swimming through the vast emptiness of the ocean on the hunt for food, suddenly a loud rumble makes them form panic and form a sphere of shimmering scales. Out of nowhere Scáthán appears and swims towards them at incredible speeds, the ball, in one homogenous motion swims upwards to get out of his way. He quickly adjusts his course and opens his mouth wide, salty water floods it immediately and air bubbles rise up. Seconds later he catches up with the school of fish, they again try to evade him by swimming to the right but it’s too late, he shuts his mouth, engulfing dozens of fish. He uses his tongue to force the oceans water out, similar as to how whales do it, this also allows some of the smaller fish to escape. With the water gone he swallows all of them with one powerful gulp, afterwards he swims back to the surface to catch his breath before diving down into the darkness below again. As the darkness of the ocean embraces him the dream fades and a new one takes over, I find myself holding onto the neck of a larger version of my brother as he soars through the skies performing all sorts of stunts. Though we are flying at a break neck speed and some of his turns end up so tight I should get flung off by gravity, I don’t feel any fear, all I feel is his joy which quickly becomes mine too. The ground beneath rapidly changes from forests, to oceans, to tundra, to desert, to jungle. We keep rising higher and higher, the ground beneath soon turning into nothing but a homogenous blob of varying colour, moments later I can see the planet itself shrink, we soon leave the atmosphere, but air is not a concern for us, all we want to do is explore the universe. We shoot past the moon like a rocket and earth keeps shrinking until it’s barely visible anymore. Mars comes into view but is also soon left behind, as we fly, we seem to keep growing and by the time we reach Jupiter we must be the size of a planet ourselves. The gas giant makes us stop for a moment to admire it and its many moons, time speeds up as we wait, and the moons fly past us like bugs on a warm summer evening. Eventually we move on and moments after we passed Jupiter, we reach Saturn, then Uranus, then Neptune and lastly, I spot Pluto in the far-off distance, looking like a tiny pebble flying through space. The moment we leave the solar system we accelerate much quicker than before, just half a minute later reach Alpha Centauri, comprised of three stars called Alpha Centauri A and B as well as their partner Proxima Centauri. We slow down a little to watch them spiral around one another in an endless dance. Every now and then a little dark spot appears in front of the giant stars, it’s the, by comparison tiny, exoplanet that managed to survive in the chaos that is gravity near the two stars. Knowing that there is so much more to see out there we eventually move onwards. We reach speeds far exceeding even the speed of light as stars of all shapes and colours blast past us like trees next to a highway. Only occasionally we stop to inspect some of the more extreme things the universe has to offer, like pulsars, neutron stars, dual or even triple star systems like Alpha Centauri, black holes, magnetars, supernovae, failed stars known as brown dwarfs, blue super giants so hot and big they just live for a couple million years and lone planets that got flung out of their solar system, all of them suspended in pitch blackness. Every time we come across one of these we stop for a while to watch them, earth and the solar system are dozens of lightyears behind us now, I couldn’t spot them even if I tried to. Eventually we run out of things to see in our galaxy, so we pay the central black hole, Sagittarius A*, a visit before following the jet of radiation erupting from its poles. While the Milky Way felt rather empty at times, nothing prepared me for the nothingness that lies between galaxies, even travelling at speeds billions of times greater than the speed of light, none of the galaxies appear to come any closer. Suddenly there is another tremendous increase in speed and seconds later we fly past the Andromeda galaxy, our closest neighbour, only two and a half million lightyears away.</p><p>Dozens, then hundreds of galaxies fly past us, yet some of the bright spots in the far-off distance never come any closer, they have to be early quasars, from the beginning of the universe, which would put them a dozen billion lightyears away from us, seemingly impossible to reach even in a dream. Eventually we leave the Laniakea supercluster, containing our home galaxy, the Milky Way, behind and enter one of the largest known empty regions of space, the KBC void. It stretches onwards for another two billion lightyears. Even out there, with no significant sources of light nearby, the “sky”, if you could call it that, is lit up with more stars than I could ever count, all of them impossibly far away. At this point the two of us decide that it would be time to return to the real world, to leave this wonderful world of imagination behind. Time warps as we fall back towards earth, an invisible tether reeling us in. Everything we saw previously flies past us, galaxies, black holes, stars, the planets of our solar system, the moon and lastly the clouds floating above the cave we sleep in. The dream fades to darkness and when I open my eyes again, I find myself flying exactly where I fell asleep, my head resting on my brothers’ stomach which still rumbles and grumbles occasionally. We stretch and yawn in unison, his hot breath blowing against my skin. As I stretch my arms, they bump into something that feels like scales, slowly I tilt my head up and lock eyes with Scáthán. He smiles and yawns too, he must have stayed behind and napped with us.</p><p>My brother gently licks my belly, making me squirm and giggle as his rough tongue glides over my skin.</p><p>When I try to stretch my legs, I again bump into Scáthán, this time it’s his side that blocks the way. I roll onto my back and only when my eyes spot his black wings draped atop the two of us, do I realize that the cave was too dark.</p><p>Seeing that we are both awake he lifts his wing and head off the ground and stretches his legs too. With his wing gone, I take a look around the cave, Skaftá is nowhere to be seen and an impressive pile of tree trunks with a mound of branches next to them. The tree trunks look like they had the twigs and branches snapped off them with sheer brute force.</p><p><strong><em>“Skaftá has been very busy for the past few hours, she’ll be back past sunset.” </em></strong>Scáthán sounds quite proud of her. <strong><em>“I suggest you two use some of the branches to make yourself a bed but before that there is something else that needs to happen.” </em></strong>He gently nudges me aside and I can feel how he begins to take over my brother’s mind. At first my brother fights back but Scáthán overpowers him after a short struggle, his mind drowns out my brothers and suddenly I find myself feeling his thoughts twice at the same time. My brothers mind floods with magic energy which Scáthán channels towards his paws and jaws, the energy makes his scales itch and tingle as it seeps into every fibre of his claws and teeth. My father’s mind fills with thoughts of dullness, claws, teeth and me, the magic energy somehow reacts to these thoughts and gets absorbed by my brothers’ talons and fangs. Once all the energy dissipated Scáthán withdraws from my brothers’ mind, he takes a little while to recover but once he does, he grows curious as to what his dad just did. I can feel a hunch that he may have cast a spell to make him unable to hurt me unless he really tried to, while I can’t follow his exact train of thought I can see where the connection could be. Our pondering is interrupted by Scáthán answering our question <strong><em>“You’re right little one, I took over your body to cast a spell that makes your claws and teeth unable to penetrate Arya’s skin, go ahead and try it.”</em></strong></p><p>My brother struggles to get back on all fours but with a little help from me he manages to roll around. He wastes no time and immediately paws my shoulder, I flinch as his claws hit me but unlike previously, they just bump into my skin, press against it and slide along it but never does it feel like they cut through. We both freeze for a moment, completely stunned by what just happened. I reach out and grab one of his claws while he’s still holding his paw in mid-air, I squeeze it as tightly as I can, it should easily be enough to pierce my skin but no, nothing happens. I can feel the texture of his claws, the little jagged edges on the underside of it, its pointy tip but no matter how hard a try I can’t get them to cut me anymore. Realizing what this means he immediately leaps onto me. The talons on his hind paws push against my tummy and while it still hurts a little, before they would have skewered me. The impact knocks the wind out of me and when my back hits the rocks beneath me stars dance across my vision but even in this dazed state, I manage to wrap my arms around him and hug him tight. This is probably the greatest thing that happened to me since I got adopted by them, now I could actually play and snuggle him with no fear of injury or death. He wraps his tail around my legs and nuzzles his head against my side, he too feels ecstatic, even more so than I do. He wants to test if it worked on his teeth to be, he’s hesitant, I pat his back and whisper “Go ahead, I’m sure I’ll be fine.” He still dithers for a couple more seconds before opening his mouth and very carefully placing my wrist in it using his tongue. The slimy and warm touch of his tongue reminds me of crawling around in Scátháns mouth. His hot breath blows against my skin sending shivers down my spine, I brace myself for whatever is about to happen. Will the spell hold? Will he actually be unable to hurt me?</p><p>Slowly he shuts his jaws, lifting my arm a little in the process, soon his upper teeth make contact with my skin too, the pressure on my wrist slowly increases and I tense up, expecting his teeth to cut through my skin any second now. He bites down harder and harder, then even tries moving his jaws back and forth, a technique that would usually allow him to saw through nearly anything. Not this time though, I feel his teeth slip and slide over my skin and while it does feel uncomfortable, there is no pain. He lets go off my wrist and gently licks it, I don’t even need to look at it to know nothing happened, his minds reaction is enough for me. <strong><em>“You still need to be careful with her though, just because you can’t cut her anymore it doesn’t mean blunt force won’t affect her. For now, though, this should suffice to keep you from accidentally murdering her.” </em></strong>Scáthán direct his words only at my brother but through our connection I can still hear him. We both nod, which he didn’t expect judging by his shocked expression. <strong><em>“You can hear this?” </em></strong>Again, he directs his words at my brother, but I can still faintly hear him. Yet again we both nod. His shocked expression changes to one of wonder and intrigue. <strong><em>“There definitely is something special about the connection between you two…” </em></strong>His mind suddenly trails off as he tries to find an answer to why. <strong><em>“…I’ll have to think more about it.” </em></strong>He finally finishes his sentence after a long pause. My brother and I are both content to wait. We knew our connection is special but for now we only cared that about one another. We stay in our loving embrace for a little longer as our father lies next to us pondering. Eventually we manage to break out of our daydreaming and my brother slowly climbs off of me, we look around for a little while wondering what we should do, then I remember Scátháns words, that we should build a bed for us. My brother is quicker on the draw, he quickly hops over to the pile of wood and begins digging through it. By the time I catch up with him he already put aside some of the more useful looking ones, which I proceed to move a little further aside and try to arrange them in a way that turns them into the base for our makeshift mattress.</p><p>I end up with a crooked three by six-foot rectangle, larger branches forming the side from of it, with smaller twigs pointing inwards. The ground is still clearly visible between the mess of leaves and twigs. Since the bigger branches aren’t connected by anything the structure would easily fall apart if we tried to sleep on it. Luckily my brother already has a solution to it, he tore a bunch of younger, more flexible, twigs and piled them up next to me. I smile, this telepathic connection is great, I can already tell what he plans on doing and it’s exactly what I had on mind too. As he can’t tie the branches together, I dig through the pile he made and pick out the longer and thicker ones to fasten the corners. While tightening the knot once I wrapped it around a couple times proves rather difficult as the ends of the branch keep tearing off.</p><p>After much cussing and cursing though I do manage to tie a knot that holds, when I turn around to fetch me another twig, I notice a distinct absence of my brother or any rustling noises accompanying his burrowing through the pile of leaves. Wondering where he went, I get up and inspect the heap, I have a hunch he’s just hiding in it to surprise me, I could even feel his mind being close, yet I can’t pinpoint exactly where it is. He also feels very much focused on staying still. I keep those thoughts down in an attempt to conceal them. “Hmm where could he have gone?” I say out loud in a pondering tone, while resting my hands on my hip, as I stand before the mound of wood and leaves. “Oh well, he must have gone somewhere, I should go look for him then.” Loudly, I deliberate, before turning around. By chance I happen to lock eyes with Scáthán who had been watching us this entire time, I can sense that he knows what’s going on as grins at me. Just as I break eye contact with my father, I hear rustling behind me, just as I expected. Just barely, I manage to poise myself for the impact, I don’t even try to turn around, I just knew he’d be too fast. As anticipated, I feel his paws hit my back, he pushes against me with all his weight, trying to topple me over but I prepared for this. I lean back into him and just barely manage to keep my balance. When he feels that I’m not giving way he panics, I feel him struggling, trying to get a grip on my back to not fall off me and in the end, he manages to wrap his front legs around my shoulders and his tail around my waist.</p><p>For a couple seconds we stand there in this awkward hug, neither of us moving at all, unsure what to do next, then suddenly he spreads his wings and swings them back and forth with all his might. While the swings back aren’t too hard for me to counter his swings forward are much faster and stronger. I begin to sway back and forth, just barely at first but it’s enough for him, he synchronizes his swings with my sways and soon I find myself nearly falling over. The moment he feels me fall over he swings his left wing forwards one more time, forcing me to turn as I fall backwards, landing half on the floor and half in the pile. He let’s go off me and triumphantly sits on top of me, I can feel his pride in my mind and hear Scáthán snicker in the background. Annoyed with having my plans foiled I try to throw him off by turning around but he simply hops off my back the second I begin to move and lands just a few feet away from me. I dust off after I got back up and grumble curses under my breath. When I look up from my stained shirt, I see my brother smugly grin at me with this typical “got you” look in his eyes. <strong><em>“Don’t be too upset sister, you caught me by surprise too and I didn’t expect you to withstand me jumping onto you, even when bracing yourself.” </em></strong>With a defeated sigh I turn around. “One day I’ll get you, one day.” I resume tying the branches together but, in my head, I keep mulling over our little struggle, what could I have done differently? Did I ever even stand a chance? <strong><em>“You could have let yourself fall backwards much earlier, I wouldn’t have been able to turn you around then and as you know once I’m on my back I can’t put up much of a fight.” </em></strong>He stayed put, his smug expression all but gone. <strong><em>“And you don’t need to worry about hurting me, I can take quite a bit before it starts to hurt.” </em></strong>He slowly gets up and slowly walks over to me, sitting down right by my side, watching me fumble trying to tie the knot. Eventually I manage to tie a knot sturdy enough to hold. When I turn to get up and start work on the next corner my brother places his front paws on my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks. He lowers his head until were eye to eye, less than an inch separating his snout from my nose. His eyes seem to take up my entire field of view. <strong><em>“Don’t take our little fights too seriously, this isn’t a competition about who’s stronger or faster, this is just a brother and sister messing around. Always remember that. You have nothing to prove to anyone.” </em></strong>He keeps staring me down, my thoughts freeze, and it feels as though the flow of time itself abruptly stopped. Only when he blinks do I realize that time hadn’t stopped moving. I nod quickly, he was right. Why do I keep falling back into my old ways? I should just enjoy my time with them and have as much fun as I can.</p><p>Suddenly I realize how compromising this position was for my brother, he needed to fully stretch his legs to reach up to me, while I was sitting hunched down, I could easily…</p><p>Before I give him the chance to react, I cut my thoughts off and just act on my impulse. I grab his sides, lean forwards and then push myself into him with my legs. His eyes grow wide when my hands touch his scales, he tries to push against me but it’s too late, I ram my shoulder into his chest and push him over. He squirms, trying to get out from under me but he’s too slow and with a thud both of us land on the ground. He stops struggling and just lies under me, defeated. With a triumphant whoop I jump up again and resume tying branches together.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey, I’d need a little help here.” </em></strong>He says with a pleading voice but for now I ignore him, after all I have knots to tie. <strong><em>“Come on don’t be like that, I know you’re just messing with me.” </em></strong> He weakly tries to roll around but doesn’t get far before giving up again.</p><p>I’m going to help him, just not yet, after all it’s just fair. He got to sit on me and make me feel helpless for a moment too. Since this is my third knot to tie, I had gotten much better at it, now I only tear the twig once or twice before managing a proper one and all too soon for my taste I finish this corner too. Slowly, I make my way over to my brother, who still lies on his back, looking up at me with hopeful eyes. After kneeling down, I move my hands under him and gently push him onto his side, he luckily isn’t too heavy yet. Once he’s on his side I just give him a light shove and he rolls over onto his paws again. I already got up again and moved on to the last corner.</p><p><strong><em>“Well thanks, took you long enough.” </em></strong>He growls quietly as he shakes himself. I quickly turn my head to face him and wink. “And you know exactly why.” I quip, with a happy grin on my face. “Now go and be useful, we still need more small branches to fill the centre.” He begins to cut the smaller twigs off the bigger branches with is claws. <strong><em>“I guess we call it even…for now.” </em></strong>For now, I think to myself. This was just the beginning of an ongoing fight to surprise one another.</p><p>After I finish tying up the last corner, I connect the branches that form the sides, these go much faster as I don’t need to tie them as tightly and the wood, being in a straight line, generally moves around much less. Just a couple minutes later I finish the last side up and look down at what we accomplished so far. We created a rough wooden frame for our bed, formed by branches one or two inches thick, from varying trees. The middle of it is still mostly empty but that was about to change. My brother had managed to produce quite a sizeable amount of smaller, leafy twigs. The two of us begin the laborious process of filling the frame with them, making sure to intertwine them as much as possible so they don’t move around. The hours pass quickly as we slowly make progress, we spend the entire time in silence, using only our mental link to communicate with one another. We always knew what the other one was planning to do and adjusted our actions as needed, teamwork in its truest form.</p><p>We need to stop several times as we run out of twigs. Fortunately, my brothers’ claws are really good at cutting through wood so restocking our pile doesn’t take us long. The light in the cave grows increasingly more orange as the sun begins to set but we don’t notice as we’re still busy.</p><p>Finally, once the sun touches the horizon, we weave the last twig into our mattress. We both take a step back and admire our work of art. As we added layer after layer of leafy twigs, we used ones with more leaves the closer we got to finishing, so that the top few layers mostly consisted of leaves, which we hoped would make it more comfortable. I kneel down and carefully slide my hand over it, it feels smooth enough for a makeshift mattress made of leaves and wood and when I press down on it, it feels rather cushy thanks to all the interwoven layers. Carefully, I sit down on it. The leaves rustle and twigs crack as I put my weight on it. Next, I lean back and lie down, again my movement is accompanied by rustling and cracking. While it certainly wasn’t the most comfortable place it was a huge improvement over the floor, and honestly it was pretty good for the resources we had at hand.</p><p>My brother joins me, the bed rustling and crackling under his weight too, the rustling continues as he gets comfortable and once it stops, I feel him rest his head on my chest. <strong><em>“Good job sister.” </em></strong>He nuzzles me affectionately. “Good job to you too, without your help I would take so much longer.” I return his loving cuddle with a gentle rub of his head.</p><p>While we lie on our bed the sun disappears behind the horizon and darkness befalls the cave, soon there’s no difference between me keeping my eyes open or shutting them, it’s just too dark for me to see. Thus, I take to just shutting my eyes and listening to the sounds around us, my brothers and my breathing, the sound of waves crashing and that’s it. If it weren’t for the ocean this cave would be one of the quietest places on earth. The repetitive sounds coming from the ocean make me sleepy, yet I can’t fully drift off, something keeps me awake. Then I remember, Skaftá hadn’t returned yet, and subconsciously I was worried.</p><p>Another hour passes in which nothing happens, I just lie there listening to the waves and occasionally checking in on my brother who spends most of this time listening to my father teach him all sorts of things dragons do, some of which I already knew but most of it was completely new to me. While I am very interested, I couldn’t keep up with them, their minds just think too fast for me. Eventually after the thousandth wave crashed against the cliff, I notice a change in the patter, there were additional splashing sounds mixed in. Quickly I check if I can sense Skaftás mind and yes, yes, I can. Finally, I think to myself. I was properly getting worried about her, then again was there anything that could hurt her?</p><p>My brother raises his head and I quickly sit up to look for her. I spot nothing but darkness, then I remember that this place at night was pitch black. So instead of looking for her I instead just welcome her in mind. <strong><em>“Welcome to you too little one.” </em></strong>Her answer follows just seconds later, she sounds tired, yet content and I can sense her exhaustion. <strong><em>“I’m sorry I’m late. I might have gotten caught up in hunting.” </em></strong>She slowly makes her way into the cave and over to us, I can hear her slow heavy steps approaching us. My brother jumps up and runs over to her, she lowers her head and he jumps up to greet her. They nuzzle each other affectionately and I can feel that he’s just as happy to have her back as I am.</p><p>She gently nudges him to tell him to let go and go back to me, he hesitantly obliges and scurries over to me, where he curls up and plops his head onto my chest again. My mother lies down not too far away from us and after a short pause her voice echoes through my head. <strong><em>“How come no one has thought to help Arya with her vision?” </em></strong>Suddenly everything around, me grows brighter and while the light is still incredibly dim, I can at least make out shapes now. I mouth a thank you and turn my head around to her. The glow in her eyes quickly fades and she smiles warmly. <strong><em>“No problem little one, I see the two of you have been rather productive today.” </em></strong>She yawns and moves around until she’s comfortable. <strong><em>“It’s impressive how well you two get along, better than I could have ever expected.” </em></strong>Her relief is obvious, and honestly, I was too. I couldn’t imagine what would have happened if I didn’t get along with my <em>little </em>brother.</p><p>He puts one paw around me and pulls me closer, welcoming his hug I wrap my arms around him too and then he snuggles his head against my back. <strong><em>“How could I not? With all she went through she doesn’t deserve anything else.” </em></strong>Tears well up and I hug him as tightly as I can, he was the first one where I was absolutely sure that he meant what he said and that he wouldn’t betray me. That is not to say that I didn’t trust my parents, I just struggled fully letting go of my reservations towards them. Skaftá grunts affirmatively and carefully strokes my cheek with the tip of her tail.</p><p>“Well, how could I not adore you guys too? You have been nothing but nice to me and even took me in when I was of no good use for you.”</p><p><strong><em>“We already talked about this at length Arya. There is no need to worry about it, there never was to begin with.” </em></strong>While she still sounds sweet as always, I can tell that she’s getting fed up with me worrying. “Alright, alright, I’ll shut up about it, I just feel like I can never be thankful enough for what you and Scáthán did for me.” I pause for a moment. “Anyway, I wonder what you were up to after you finished gathering firewood and also why so much of it?” Her irritation quickly disappears again, her mood truly swings a lot when she’s exhausted, and she yawns and relaxes. <strong><em>“Winter is coming, you’ll need a fire at all times to not freeze to death and to make it easier for us I gathered all the wood we might need now so we won’t have to deal with the frozen soil.” </em></strong>She lifts one paw to scratch the back of her head. <strong><em>“Once I got done gathering wood I went for a swim and while I was at it also caught myself more food but why am I even telling you all this when I can show you instead?” </em></strong>I get just barely enough time to brace myself before my mind gets sucked out of my body. Darkness embraces me as I fall into the seemingly infinite ocean of her memories.</p><p>The blackness fades and is replaced by her soaring over the ocean’s surface, the sun still high up in the sky, swarms of seagulls’ scatter whenever she comes even remotely close, filling the air with their caws and screeches. Beneath her the oceans lies mostly flat, the waves no taller than one foot. The wind blowing towards the shore allows her to just glide along, only occasionally does she need to move her wings to make up for the lost height. No matter where she looks, only water surrounds her, and even with her enhanced sight she still can’t see any land as the curvature of earth hides it. For a while she just enjoys the salty air blowing into her face and filling her wings and the sun warming her back. Eventually her body temperature rises to a point where she needs to cool down, but instead of directing the warmer blood into her wings she slowly drops down to the surface of the water. Once she’s close enough she extends one claw towards the surface and as soon as it makes contact a huge shower of tiny water droplets erupts. The droplets fly everywhere and spray against her underside, giving her some of the much-needed cooling but it’s far from enough. So instead she angles her wings upwards, her speed rapidly decreases but she rises several dozen feet up into the air before reaching the tipping point, she slowly flaps her wings twice more, netting her another dozen foot. She tucks her wings to her side and lets gravity take over, she’s a good sixty feet above the water now, enough for her to turn about 180° to hit the water nose first. I watch as she barrels towards the ocean, her low aerodynamic drag allowing her to reach speeds in excess of forty miles an hour. Just split seconds before hitting the water she shuts her eyes and her entire body stiffens as she braces for the impact. With a loud crashing sound her body disappears under the surface and with a dull boom the hole she tore into the ocean shuts behind her, the shockwave shaking her body. She reopens her eyes once the water settled down again. Skaftá finds herself floating just thirty odd feet beneath the surface. The sunlight glistens through the water as if it were a shattered mirror. Looking down the sea floor lies far out of sight, possibly thousands of feet away.</p><p>She slowly swims back to the surface to catch a breath, merely poking her head above the water before diving down again. The chilly water is maybe 20°C (68°F) warm and quickly drains her body of all excess heat, shivers of pleasure run down her spine as the discomforting heat within her dissipates. Surprisingly there are no fish to be seen, no matter where she looks, they must have fled when she dove in. That doesn’t matter to her though, for now she just wants to enjoy the nice cool ocean. She spends the next hour just swimming around, sometimes floating atop the water, sometimes diving down deep, until the sunlight just barely reaches her. When she isn’t busy exploring the depths below or catching her breath, she just messes around like a child in a pool would. Spinning around own axis, swimming in as tight spirals as she can until her head spins, playing dead and many other things.</p><p>Sadly, water is much denser and thicker than air so soon she finds herself exhausted and hungry. This far out she was unlikely to find any food near the surface she begins making her way towards shore, she seems to instinctively know which direction to swim. As she swims, she uses her buoyancy to slowly drift towards the surface. Once there she uses the currents to gradually float towards land, which thanks to the rising tide goes much faster than expected. Some twenty minutes later she spots the first signs of the shore peeking over the horizon which is her cue to dive down again. This time the view is much different from last time, the sun still gleams through the surface like before but now it actually reaches the sea bottom about three hundred feet below (100m). An endless sea of sand stretches as far as she can see, with the occasional rock speckled throughout. While it looks like there is still no food around, she knows better, many of her potential prey are just hiding in the sand below. Her eyes dart around for a little longer, scanning her surroundings, then she swims back to the surfaces and takes a deep breath. With her lungs filled to the brim with fresh air she dives down again, with no intention to resurface for a while. She covers the distance to the sea floor in just a couple swift swings of her wings. Her arrival at the bottom sends sand swirling all around her, shrouding her in a cloak that is nearly impossible to see through. She swims along the sand, just a few feet above it. Carefully, she lowers her paws until her talons cut through the upper half a foot of sand (15cm). Soon her strategy pays off as she feels her claws hit a flounder that had been waiting for prey to swim by, it instantly gets skewered and she only needs to lift her paw and pluck it off her claws. This continues for a while netting her all sorts of bottom feeders, mostly flounders but also the occasional skate. While this technique is easy and pretty effective it doesn’t catch nearly enough fish to fill her stomach quickly but that also wasn’t the main point of it. She intended to use the smell of blood coming from the impaled fish to attract larger predators, namely sharks. From her knowledge most of the shark around here are rather small often growing to just under three feet (1m) in length but she had hopes of attracting some of the larger ones too, maybe even a mako shark. Whatever else happens to approach her would just be extra, not that she cared too much about what ended up in her gut and what didn’t.</p><p>Sure, enough soon the first smaller, curious sharks made an appearance at the scene and while they would have immediately scattered upon seeing her, she had swirled up enough sand around her to conceal her presence. As soon as the first shark comes close enough, she bolts forward with her mouth wide open. It can barely react before she engulfs it, just like Scáthán she uses her tongue to force most of the salty water out of her mouth before swallowing. The others try to flee but many of them are too slow to escape her greedy jaws and end up getting devoured. Occasionally she makes sure to bite one in half to strengthen the scent of blood in the water.</p><p>Her strategy soon pays off as some larger sharks make an appearance, her first victim is a bramble shark. A wide grin appears on her face and I can feel her lusting for its blood. She again hides in a cloud of sand until it comes near enough but soon, she grows impatient. Not wanting to wait any longer she shoots out of her cover, the shark tries to flee just like many before it but just as it turned around, she catches up to it and sinks her teeth into its tail fin, tearing it off with one swift tilt of her head. The shark flails about, unable to move in any direction with its main means of movement cut off. Skaftá doesn’t let it suffer for too long and quickly consumes the rest of the four-foot (1,2m) shark, creating an impressive cloud of blood in the process. The bloodshed keeps attracting more large sharks and many of them fall victim to her feeding frenzy, getting torn to pieces within seconds. Now that many fish of varying sizes had arrived, they had begun feeding on one another too which makes hunting so much easier for Skaftá. Quite a few of the sharks had entered a feeding frenzy themselves and did not flee when she approached them, some even dared to try and attack her, which always resulted in them getting impaled by her claws and subsequently getting torn to bite size pieces to be eaten. It doesn’t take her long to fill her stomach and once she’s sure she can’t fit even one more bite she makes her way back to the surface. As soon as she feels the air touch her nostrils, he exhales all the stale air in her lungs and gasps for fresh air, while down there she had completely lost track of time. She spends a few minutes just bobbing up and down as the waves carry her further towards shore. Her mind had not yet fully left the its frenzied state so every now and then thoughts of bloodshed and murder pop into her mind, accompanied by images of her tearing prey to shreds. Even though I’m only watching her memories it still strikes fear in my heart.</p><p>In the distance the chatter of dolphins catches her attention, sadly she was already full, otherwise she might have caught herself one as a snack. Their meat was much tastier than that of many other fish but missing out on it now didn’t bother her much. We would be staying here for half a year at least so there would be many more chances to get a taste of them. With the shore just another half an hour away she lazily unfolds her wings and after struggling for a moment takes flight. The winds coming from the ocean quickly carry her towards the cliffs and shortly thereafter she spots the cave we lived in.</p><p>Her memories fade to black as she lands in the water right in front of the entrance and I find myself falling again and when I try to open my eyes, I find myself in my own body again. For a moment I just lie there, processing all the images I had just seen in the span of less than a minute. In my mind I can also feel that my brother saw the same pictures, though his reaction was rather different from mine. He was impressed and had this feeling that everyone has as a kid when watching their parents do cool things, that feeling of wanting to be like them when one grows up. He was soaking up as much as he could about her hunting techniques, in the hopes of using them himself sometime soon.</p><p>Me on the other hand, I felt mildly terrified but also awestruck. I knew I could never come close to replicating what she did, but then again, I was merely human so how could I? Deep down in my mind the pictures of her hunting and her lust for blood had set off all the survival instincts. While I knew that the chances of me ending up as prey were extremely low, subconsciously I associated with all those sharks she devoured, and it struck a primordial fear in me that I had rarely felt before.</p><p>At the same time, I also felt an incredible admiration for her, the smoothness of her movements underwater made it look like she was born for it and the precision with which she attacked her prey was out of this world. Even under water she truly was the apex predator to end all apex predators, I could not come up with a single living being on this planet that could even threaten her.</p><p>I get shaken out of my thoughts by my brother carefully nudging me, I hadn’t even noticed that he let go off me and was now sitting on the bed next to me while I was hugging the air, how he managed to remove himself from under my arms without me noticing eludes me. I tilt my head slightly wondering why he had just poked me. <strong><em>“You humans fear many things, don’t you?” </em></strong>I furrow my eyebrows trying to understand what he means. I mean a modern human doesn’t have much to worry about…</p><p><strong><em>“I mean that your kind has a lot of ancient fears planted into its subconscious.” </em></strong>He sounds curious but also worried, worried that I would begin fearing him as he grew. He had good reason to believe that too seeing as I, at times, still got nervous around his parents. What he said was right too, primal humans had many things to fear, we were an apex predator but not without competition, sabretooth tigers come to mind and there are probably more. I nod slowly. “We do and sadly they can’t be turned off easily, but I promise I’ll never be afraid of you. I hope that watching you grow up takes my fear of dragons away.” Saying that made me realize that my brain could not possibly be hardwired to fear dragons, they didn’t even exist on this planet yet when humans were still in the tribal stage. Was it their size? Their claws and teeth? I couldn’t know but it made sense that humans would be afraid of anything much larger than them as it’s a sure-fire way to tell if something can kill you with ease or not. That is not to say that small animals can’t be a threat, they’re just less likely to actively hunt humans.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m pretty sure the two of you will never need to fear one another.” </em></strong>Scáthán suddenly pipes up, making me jump a little. <strong><em>“Neither I nor your mother can tell you what exactly is different for you two, but there are many things not normal between you and I mean that in only the most positive ways. As far as I can remember this is completely unprecedented, not only between humans and dragons but dragons and anything even their own kind.” </em></strong>My brother and I both turn around to him and tilt our heads in unison, we couldn’t make sense of what he was talking about.</p><p><strong><em>“When you two touched for the first time, that sparked that jumped between the two of you, that wasn’t electricity, it was something different, completely different.” </em></strong>Skaftá, sensing our confusion answers, what she says sounds rather gloomy. Both of them suddenly get up, their movements perfectly synchronized, they then sit down just a couple feet (around 1-2m) away from us. My brother and I look up at them and they in turn stare down at us. I try to figure out how they are feeling but either they are concealing their true emotions or they themselves are unsure how to feel.</p><p><strong><em>“We aren’t sure what it was, I think it was magic energy but that’s just a guess. In the end we’re not sure what it was but we know it changed both of you. Especially you Arya.” </em></strong>While his eyes had been looking at neither me not my brother in particular, I can now feel both his and my mother’s eyes resting on me. My mouth dries up in an instant and my heart begins to race. What do they mean? How did it change me? They were still not making any sense and it was worrying me, was I doomed to die or worse? A weak smile appears on Scátháns face. <strong><em>“No, you’re not doomed little one. I don’t know how to put it but I’m pretty sure the changes are for the better.” </em></strong></p><p>His words aren’t really reassuring me, there was a time in my life not too long ago where a change for the better would have meant my demise. <strong><em>“I think it’s best if we show you an example.” </em></strong>Just as Skaftá finishes her sentence my vision turns blurry and I find myself staring down at me and my brother sitting in front of her, our minds clearly visible in the otherwise empty cave. I had seen my own mind before already, it still looked like the usual floating cooper brown ball of energy and my brother next to me is a red ball of energy just as expected but what strikes me as odd is the connection between our minds. The one between me and Skaftá is merely a thin tendril, like a thing spark jumping off a tesla coil but the one between me and my brother is much, much thicker.</p><p>Though the perspective is quite skewed I guess that compared to real world dimensions it would be inches thick where the connections I had seen were mere hundredths of an inch. There is another odd thing about it, its surface isn’t smooth, it looks like there are smaller branches running across it, almost like veins and they pulse in a rhythm that looks awfully similar to my heartbeat. She blinks and when she opens her eyes again, I find myself looking through my own eyes, back in reality. <strong><em>“No mental connection between two beings has ever been so strong. Even the one between me and Scáthán or my siblings doesn’t come close.” </em></strong>Pictures of her looking at her siblings’ minds flash before me, there’s a connection between them that looks like the lightning in one of those plasma bulbs. Thicker than the connection between me and her but not even close to the connection between me and my brother. <strong><em>“The implications of this are interesting to say the least.” </em></strong>Scáthán takes over talking again. <strong><em>“Your minds have linked up to the point where they might as well be conjoined. You might have already noticed that it takes no effort for you to look into each other’s thoughts, you’re always aware of what the other one is thinking or doing. This does not happen. Even between me and Skaftá it takes some conscious effort to check in on one another.” </em></strong>He pauses for a moment to let me process his words. <strong><em>“Luckily though, your mind managed to adapt quickly. We were worried that your brother’s mind is too different to be compatible and while we can’t be sure what would happen if it weren’t, we’re both sure it would have driven you insane sooner rather than later. You’ve had your fair share of experiences with how it might feel like, the onslaught of thoughts streaming from his mind into yours would simply overwhelm you.” </em></strong>I shudder as I remember how I felt like when Skaftá broke my mind, the feelings of drowning in the chaos of your own thoughts was among the worst I’ve ever felt. <strong><em>“So, consider yourself lucky, because we couldn’t have done much about it, the link between your minds is too strong to sever and even with distance it should barely grow weaker.” </em></strong>I turn around to my brother, he does the same and we stare at each other for a moment. The thought, that he might have driven me insane just be touching me hurts him, I can tell, but at the same time he is incredibly thankful that it all went well. <strong><em>“That doesn’t matter though, all is going well between you two for now. Another thing you noticed is that all of your brothers’ memories flooded into you when you touched, it happened for him too. Both of you share the same memories now.” </em></strong>We don’t take our eyes off one another. I hadn’t realized yet, but it made sense. My heart sinks, that means he now has to live with the same burden as me, with all the terrible memories that haunt me to this day. Yet they don’t bother him in the slightest, in fact they seem to make him more determined to protect me. Skaftá continues where Scáthán left off. <strong><em>“With the zap that synchronized your memories you also got a good amount of magic energy from your brother, which probably happened because your brother happens to carry incredible amounts of magic energy even now. We haven’t told you yet but sometimes there are anomalies in our offspring where one ends up much more powerful than his siblings or even his parents. The great delta between your energy levels likely resulted in some jumping over to you to shrink the gap and it’s likely that the flow will continue at a slower pace until it reaches equilibrium.” </em></strong>Both of them don’t appear concerned with the fact that their day-old hatchling needs to deal with the trauma of nearly 20 years of abuse. <strong><em>“Don’t worry Arya, dragons are very resilient to mental trauma, there’s nothing that can truly shock us when it comes to you humans. Your kind is cruel, and we’ve come to expect it.” </em></strong>Skaftá inserts and my brother nods as she speaks. <strong><em>“That’s why I vouch to always protect you from the evil of this world.” </em></strong>My brother has the childish determination in his voice, but even though he’s merely a day old, I know that he means it. I wrap my arms around him and hug him tightly, I would never let go off him if I could. He answers my embraces by wrapping his wings around me, hiding my body beneath them, with only my head sticking out. I can feel our parents smiling at the sight of us hugging. <strong><em>“No matter, since you’ll soon have enough magic in your to be able to use it, you’ll have to start training, otherwise you might end up killing yourself by accident.” </em></strong>Scáthán breaks the silence. <strong><em>“And we don’t know yet what effects large amounts of magic energy have on the human body or anything for that matter. But don’t worry about that I’m pretty sure it will take a while to affect you on a physical level and even then, the effects don’t have to be negative.”</em></strong></p><p>For the first time I spot some uncertainty in his voice, but I decide to ignore it, the prospects of casting spells are much more exciting for me. Both of them give of the impression that they are happy with my reaction to the news. <strong><em>“There is one more thing we can’t explain, as you know he sought out your mind when we took you in, and while his siblings did too, only he took the time to take a closer look because he felt a connection to you even then. This doesn’t happen, ever. There was no previous contact between the two of you, no connection to speak of, yet he seemed to know you were important to him.” </em></strong>Skaftá sounds rather perplexed. <strong><em>“While there probably is no higher purpose to this, nor is it a sign of higher powers tinkering with this world, it’s still interesting though.” </em></strong>She pauses for a moment, as if she’s thinking about something. <strong><em>“And since the two of you appear to be destined for one another…” </em></strong>She trails off and Scáthán takes over. <strong><em>“We’ll leave it to you to give you brother a name.”</em></strong></p><p>I look up to them, not believing what I just heard but as I stare up to them both just nod, affirming that they meant it. My heart leaps for joy and my mind races trying to find a fitting name and I turn my head to face him. He grins happily, I can feel his excitement too but what name to give him? Naming a human is already hard enough but a dragon? In the moment it feels absolutely impossible, I couldn’t even find anything to start with.</p><p>After much pondering and still no idea, I decide to see if I could use my parents name to inspire me. Luckily, I knew what they probably meant, Skaftá was named that because her scales may have to colour of the ice beneath a stream running down a glacier. Scáthán possibly got his name from how his scales are so reflective you might be able to use one as a mirror to look into a blackened version of this world. One thing their names had in common was that their names are both based on bodily features, their scales to be precise. I take a good look at my brother, running my hand over his body as I intently stare at the intense red of his scales. Some names come to mind but I discard them quickly as they simply sound wrong and I can tell my brother is watching my thoughts and he too doesn’t particularly like any of my ideas.</p><p>Seeing how I’m not getting anywhere. I try to free myself from my brother embrace even though I didn’t want to but maybe seeing his entire body will help me. He unwraps his wings and we both take a step back, ending up on opposite ends of our bed. He sits down on his haunches, wraps his tail around himself and tucks his wings to his side, in the meantime I sit down and cross my legs, fold my hands and rest them where my legs cross.</p><p>We stare at one another intently, he waits patiently as I agonise over what name to give him. Our parents, sensing that this is not going to end quickly, decide to lie down too, Scáthán positioning himself behind me and Skaftá lying down behind my brother. They intertwine their tails and rest their heads next to one another. My eyes dart all over his body but nothing catches my eye or spark any ideas.</p><p>My head begins to hurt from all the hard thinking and my brother is about to tell me to quit for the day when I catch a glimpse of his claws underneath his tail. Those talons that caused me so much agonizing pain, they nearly killed me, yet I felt weirdly intrigued by them in that moment. Quickly, I crawl over to him on all fours and grab one of his paws, carefully lifting it and pulling towards me. He lets me do as I please, merely tilting his head in curiosity.</p><p>The upper side of it isn’t all too interesting, just more scales like every part of his body but the underside is much more interesting. It reminds of a cat’s paw. The pads are completely black just like his claws. I gently run my fingers across them. He twitches as my fingers tickle him, fortunately I didn’t need to fear him lashing out at me as much anymore but to not torture him too much I stop. While his toepads looked intriguing, the main reason I wanted to look at his paws, was to look at his claws. They curve slightly upwards, their underside jagged and sharp like a saw. The claw conjoins into a pointy tip, running my finger over it, it feels like the tip of a needle. Their surface is nearly perfectly smooth, only my fingers can feel out tiny bumps, invisible to the eye.</p><p>As I stare at them, they begin to remind me of barbed thorns. When my glance wanders over his scales as I continue pondering, I suddenly realize that his scales are similar to roses, his talons acting as the thorns of the plant but rose is a female name…</p><p>I quickly look up and into his eyes, I can tell he too likes the name but agrees that it wouldn’t fit him. The incessant pondering continues, having something that at least came close gives me new motivation. While my thoughts wander in search for an answer they keep returning to his claws and how they resemble thorns. <em>“Thorns, why thorns, why does it keep coming back…” </em>My mind gets stuck on it, doesn’t want to let the thought go. <em>“What’s the meaning of this?” </em>Trying to find out why my thoughts keep circling this one word turns up little at first but what if it had something to do with the language again? Our parents’ names are both in different languages maybe his is to be found in something other than English too?</p><p>Knowing merely English and German proves not conducive to my struggles. <em>“Thorn…Dorn…?” </em>This all seems so devoid of sense and meaning to me. Having already looked at all possible meanings and corruptions of thorn in English I decide to look at it in German instead. My thoughts consume me so much that I don’t notice that my brother’s mind resonates with growing intensity every time I mention the word “Dorn”. Realizing that I’m lost in my mind he gently tugs on my hand in an attempt to get my attention. Feeling him lightly pull on my arm snaps me out of my trance instantly, I can still feel his mind resonate in that moment. Not knowing the cause just yet I furrow my eyebrows and look into his eyes. <strong><em>“I think you found my name sister.” </em></strong>I tilt my head. “Dorn?” Again, his mind resounds as I speak his name and he nods. <em>“Dorn it is then.” </em>We both look up at our parents, looking for affirmation from them. They quickly glance at one another, then back down at us and nod affirmatively, a smile creeping across their faces. I turn to look at my brother, Dorn, again. We both leap at one another, colliding mid-air, embracing one another before crashing into our bed with much rustling and crackling. He rolls onto his back, wrapping his front paws and tail around me and draping his wings over me while I lay my arms around his shoulders and hug him tightly.</p><p>We lie there, on our bed, unmoving, just enjoying the touch of one another. Our breathing synchronizes and I just know that our heartbeat does too. I close my eyes in an attempt to take it all in, the warmth of his scales, the gentle sounds of him breathing, his paws resting on my back, his claws clinging to my clothes and the gentle thuds of his heart. For a moment I feel like we’re in heaven, like this moment is perfect and that I finally found my place in this world. Our blissful moment is interrupted by a growl followed by the sound of our parents moving quickly. The growl sounded different, too quiet and weak to be coming from either Scáthán or Skaftá. I quickly turn my head towards where the noise came from, at the same time Dorn turns his head too. Since the effects of my enhanced vision have not worn off yet I can just barely manage to make out what stands in the darkness a good two hundred feet (60m) away from us, it’s a brown bear with its cub standing close behind it. Dorns embrace grows even tighter, his claws shred my shirt and he growls back. His growl sounds just like that of his parents, if a bit weaker. The bear answers with a roar and charges at us.</p><p>She doesn’t get far though as Scáthán slams his tail down right in front of her with an impressive bang that makes the earth shake. The bear stumbles and falls over while clawing at his tail but even when she does land it blow her paws just bounce off him. She ends up on her back after falling over, Scáthán seizes the opportunity and wraps his tail around her. She tries to bite it, but he skilfully keeps it out of her reach. Once he is sure that he has a good grip on the bear he lifts her off the ground. Even with her trying to struggle so much his iron grip barely lets her move as he moves her closer to his mouth. I ready myself for seeing him make a bloody mess of the bear but instead he holds her at his eye level for a moment, his eyes glow oh so slightly and then suddenly the struggling stops. The bear’s body loses all tension as if the life were sucked right out of it. He places the now limp body in his mouth and after a short moment of chewing swallows it. He must have used magic to kill her but how? Judging by the glow it only took minimal effort on his part.</p><p>With the bear dead and the cub scurrying away my brother relaxes again, and he gently pats my back as an apology for squeezing me so tightly. I answer with a warm smile and pat his head before turning towards Scáthán again. “Just how did you do that?” I ask pointedly.</p><p><strong><em>“Used magic to stop her heart, if you do it right it takes very little energy and acts extremely quickly. It’s the most efficient way to take out single prey like that.” </em></strong>He answers quickly and casually, as if it were business as usual. That also explains the times either of them brought home prey without any obvious cause of death, they must have singled them out and killed them with magic. <strong><em>“In fact, it’s so easy, it might be one of the first things we teach you when it comes to magic.” </em></strong>Skaftá adds to what he said. <strong><em>“It’s one of the most useful tools for survival I feel.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly, while it sounds dangerous, I’m sure they’ll have safeguards in place to prevent accidents. <strong><em>“You be. We don’t want you accidentally stopping your own heart now do we.” </em></strong>Scáthán answers my concerns and this time it doesn’t surprise me as I was secretly hoping either of them would come to answer.</p><p>A slight grin flashes over my lips, past me would have really appreciated that ability. I shake my head to be rid of those thoughts, they don’t matter anymore. What matters now is what lies ahead, or at the time, beneath me, my brother. Dorn winks at me and licks my left cheek. <strong><em>“Yes, all these old ghosts don’t matter anymore. I’ll make sure of that.” </em></strong>I nod in agreement and nuzzle my head against his. As I lie there, snuggled up to my brother, sleepiness quickly sets in. I have no clue how late it is but I’m sure it must be approaching midnight. A yawn escapes me, and I close my eyes to, hopefully, fall asleep soon. My brother shifts around a little to get comfortable and in the background, I hear our parents yawn in unison. All four of us fall asleep just minutes apart from one another. I find myself quite excited to sleep that day, I wanted to know what me and my brother’s minds could dream up today.</p><p>It takes much too long for my mind to finally enter the dream phase of my sleep but when it eventually does, I already find myself on the back of my brother, flying into outer space. <strong><em>“Finally, sister, you took forever to join me.” </em></strong>My brother says in our dream, it sounds almost too real. Not wanting to destroy the dream by speaking myself I just nod. Just like last time we fly past the planets of our solar system, not stopping to take a look though. Soon we reach the Kuiper belt, a region at the edge of our solar system similar to the asteroid belt. The moment we leave the Heliosphere we rapidly speed up breaking the speed of light in just seconds. Stars, many of them like our sun, fly past us like street lights. It seems Dorn knows where he wants to go today.</p><p>As we blast through spacetime it looks as though time itself has started running backwards too. I see huge clouds of gas collapse in on themselves, forming red giants, then shrinking down to roughly sun size before dispersing into a cloud of gas again.</p><p>Finally, we arrive at our destination, an incredibly large and dense cloud of gas itching to collapse in on itself. We slow down and circle around the cloud a couple times, then in a flash so bright it drowns out all other stars around us and shakes the foundation of spacetime itself, a giant star nearby explodes in a Supernova. The shockwave contorts the fabric of spacetime and compresses the cloud of gas in front of us. This leads to a runaway reaction of more and more of the gas and debris clumping together forming a larger mass with more gravity that in turn attracts more matter.</p><p>Quickly, it grows to dozens of solar masses, Hydrogen fusion ignites in its core, the heat and radiation from it pushes some matter away, slowing the coalescing but not stopping it. The star that just came into existence keeps growing, after it reaches approximately two hundred solar masses the radiation pressure of the star that now burns bright and hot grows strong enough to prevent any more matter from falling into it, ultimately halting its growth. The fusion in its core burns so hot, it causes all sorts of odd interactions both in and outside of the star making its brightness change constantly. Now that no more matter is being added to the star it begins to blast parts of its outer shell back into space. Due to its incredible size the star burns all of its hydrogen fuel in no time and once it’s all gone it continues burning Helium, the waste of its previous stage. During this stage it grows even brighter than before, outshining our sun by a factor of well over ten thousand, if not hundred thousand.</p><p>Seeing that the star has a lot less helium available this stage of its life soon ends too. While it was fusing Helium in its core it also blasted large amounts of it back into outer space, leaving only heavier elements behind. Smaller stars would fade into obscurity at this point, being too small to fuse the waste of Helium burning, not this monster of a star though. It grows in size and brightness, exceeding any other star in our galaxy in terms of luminosity, outshining our sun by a factor of several million. Its surface temperature rises too, reaching over one hundred thousand kelvins, giving us a clue as to what temperatures govern its core. In the blink of an eye, at least compared to the previous stages, it runs out of fuel for this and the next stage of its life too. By now it lost almost half of its initial mass, just blasting it out into space through the sheer pressure of the light it emits.</p><p>With only oxygen and other heavy elements left, it enters its final moments. It shrinks significantly as fusion in its core stops for just a moment, again temperature and pressure skyrocket until oxygen gives in and begins to fuse into yet heavier elements. It doesn’t last long though, just moments later all oxygen is consumed and one last time the star contracts, compressing its core further until silicon begins to fuse with other elements. In this stage all kinds of elements undergo fusion, fuelling the stars incredibly bright light for just a couple more days.</p><p>The way my brother and me perceive time has now reached almost earth like speeds.</p><p>After fusing what little silicon the star had it begins to collapse again but this time, when fusion kicks back in, it does the opposite of what it did before. Now the star creates Iron in its core which consumes more energy that it releases, accelerating the collapse of the star further. Pressure in the core reaches levels so high that the nuclei of atoms collapse in on themselves, leaving nothing but neutrons behind. For a short moment this ball of neutrons resists the matter pressing onto it, redirecting some of the energy resulting in most of the outer shells getting blasted away together with a flash of light too bright to be described. Once the flash of light comes to pass only a black hole surrounded by a disk of debris remains, in the end the neutrons could not resist the weight put on them and the core collapsed into a singularity.</p><p>We just witnessed the entire life of one of the largest stars in the Milky Way, its death igniting dozens of new stars in the surrounding cloud of gas as the shockwave ripples through space and time.</p><p>Dorn circles around the black hole a couple times to take a closer look at it, it’s tiny compared to the star it spawned from, yet it weighs as much as several suns and will remain as the legacy of its progenitor for billions of years to come.</p><p>Once our curiosity is satisfied, we make our way back towards earth, everything around us fading until only darkness envelops us.</p><p>Suddenly when I open my eyes after blinking, I find myself looking at the side of my brother’s head. The night had already come to pass.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Wings of Tomorrow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Before I fully awaken, I can already feel my brother move underneath me, he must have woken up too. I stretch as best as I can with his wings and tail restricting my movement.</p><p><strong><em>“Good morning sister.” </em></strong>He greets me not an inkling of sleepiness left in his voice or mind. That’s a common theme with my parents and him, whenever they wake up, they are fully awake in seconds while I’m still busy shaking off the fog of slumber. “Good morning brother.” I reply, my tiredness painfully obviously resonating in my voice.</p><p>A yawn overcomes me, afterwards I drop my forehead onto my brothers’ chest. While I do feel very well rested and fully recovered from the strains of the previous day, I take much longer to feel actually awake and not like a sleepwalking zombie.</p><p>He nudges my head with the tip of his snout, when I lift my head, he greets me with a long lick up the right side of my face. I groan and roll my eyes. This is going to be a recurring thing but if I’m being honest with myself I kind of enjoy it. My brother grins happily seeing as his plan worked perfectly, I am wide awake now.</p><p>I feel him unwrap his wings and gently push his paws under my sides in an attempt to get me off of him. I take the hint, get up and move aside, then I help him roll over onto his paws. Dorn stretches just like cats do the moment he stands upright again, then looks over to me nods. <strong><em>“Thanks for the aid sister.” </em></strong>Both of us look for your parents, Skaftá is nowhere to be seen, she must have left already while Scáthán stayed behind to keep an eye on the two of us.</p><p><strong><em>“Good morning you sleepyheads.” </em></strong>His voice booms through both our minds as he lazily gets up. <strong><em>“I’ve been waiting, if you would follow me.” </em></strong>He trots to the exit of the cave and my brother and I follow him quickly. While I can’t tell what his plans are my brother can, he gets quite excited and while I’m not one hundred percent certain why, I can tell it has to do with water and flying. It doesn’t make sense to me but I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough.</p><p>The rushing of the waves grows more intense as we turn the corner and suddenly Scáthán scoops me up with his tail and places me on his back, seconds later he drops my brother behind me, then takes off. I and my brother nearly lose our grip as he leaps up into the air. I can feel my brother dig his claws into my side, thankfully the protective spell keeps them from hurting me. Once Scátháns flight stabilizes we crawl back up to his neck and I hold on tight while my brother wraps his front legs around me. He carries us out over the ocean, it’s an overcast day and I can tell winter is drawing close, the wind chill is enough to make me shiver and the hair on my arms stands on end. Several miles away from the coast, I can’t see any land no matter how hard I try, he descends onto the water surface and just floats along, waiting for something.</p><p>We sit on his back and stare at the waves passing by as we bob up and down, I can sense Skaftá nearby but not see her. Suddenly the water surfaces bulges up a couple hundred feet away from us (~60m) and a split second later her head breaches through the water. She shoots out of the water like a shark hunting a seal. She spreads her wings as they tear out of the water, sending millions of tiny water droplets flying, creating a rainbow as the sun refracts through them. Somehow, she built up enough speed to catapult her entire body out of the water and then some. Skaftá flaps her wings a couple times to pass over us and crash into the water on the other side, all the while dragging a string of water behind her. My brother and I slowly turn our head to follow her trajectory, completely enthralled by her graciously gliding through the air hundreds of feet above (~60m). The sun darkens as she passes over us.</p><p>With a loud splash she disappears under water again. Her impact is followed by a gut shaking boom as the hole she punched into the ocean collapses and sends a fountain of water flying over a hundred feet high (30m).</p><p>When gravity pulls the water back down it feels like heavy rain for a couple seconds, all three of us end up completely drenched. Soon after the ocean looks completely unperturbed again, just small waves rippling across.</p><p>Dorn and I are stunned. This was so unexpected and beautiful we’re left dumbfounded. About half a minute later she re-emerges from the depths below, but this time she only pops up like a duck would, poking her head through the surface first, the rest of the body soon following. Buoyancy only pushing her out of the water slightly, like a ball that was held under water and then released.</p><p><strong><em>“I see you two finally woke up too.” </em></strong>She speaks to us. <strong><em>“Since you need a bath Arya and Dorn will have an easier time learning how to fly under water why don’t you two join me?” </em></strong>I want to be upset. Did she just say I smell? But then I realize that I probably do and that she also means no harm anyway. My brother doesn’t think twice about it and leaps off his father’s back into the cold water below. He awkwardly paddles around, trying to figure out how this swimming thing works, it looks quite hilarious from up here. I get up and prepare myself for the temperature shock that is about to ensue. I take one last deep breath before bending my knees and hopping off of Scátháns back, flinging my arms forward as I fly to take a header into the ocean. After hitting the water, I dive down just under six feet (~2m) down before turning around and swimming back to the surface. The water feels cold as ice at first, but I manage to quickly shake off the discomfort and get used to it.</p><p>While my clothes weigh me down as expected it’s not nearly as bad as I thought, it makes me wonder why people were so afraid of swimming with clothes. I poke my head out of the water not far from my brother and slowly turn to see where our parents are. As expected, they haven’t moved an inch and watch over us as we dabble about. Just like my parents I watch my brother for a little while as he struggles to move much in any direction, creating a lot of splashing in the process. Luckily, his body is light enough to not let him sink.</p><p>He quickly makes progress and soon he’s able to slowly swim around, he makes his way over me and begins circling me. I keep turning with him, keeping a close eye on him, I know he’s up to his usual shenanigans again. Dorn tries to leap forward to push me under but overestimates how much resistances the water has, which makes him only slowly drift towards me after a short hop forward. A smug grin grows on my face as he looks at me with this deer in the headlights look and I take my turn to jump onto him and push him under. I put my entire weight into it and manage to get him far enough under water that I can get my feet onto his back and use them to push him even further. Some seconds later he appears back at the surface three feet (1m) away from me. He’s not deterred at all and resumes circling me again, this time though I don’t even let him take his turn and instead diver down myself, swimming under him and grabbing his hind paws before pulling them down. Once his back is submerged, I grab onto his shoulders and swim downwards as far as I can before running out of breath and make my way back to the surface.</p><p>He’s far from running out of breath though and turns the tables on me, now it’s his turn to hold onto my leg and slow me down. Just barely do I manage to reach the surface and desperately gasp for the air the moment I feel the water part above me. My brother pops up right next to me and grins deviously, now that he knows that he has the longer breath of the two of us he feels emboldened.</p><p>I don’t take my chances and decide to put some distance between me and him, for now at least, I can swim faster than him. As quickly as I can I swim around Scáthán, he tries to follow but the gap between us quickly grows. When I reach the other side, he loses sight of me for just long enough that I can go underwater and pass under Scátháns belly back to where we started. As I wait for my brother to figure out what happened I look up to my father, he returns my gaze with a smile. <strong><em>“You enjoy the waters a lot too huh?” </em></strong>Before I can answer he continues, in a much more hushed tone, as if it were only meant for me. <strong><em>“He’s coming, quick.” </em></strong>He nods his head in Skaftás direction.</p><p>I take that as him telling me to dive under her too to keep hiding. After taking a hurried deep breath I dive down into the depths again and swim under Skaftá. As I’m right under her I realize that the salt water doesn’t hurt my eyes like it should and that my eyelids feel completely dry, one of them must have put a spell on me to protect them. My lungs hold just enough oxygen to make to the other side. I force myself to breathe quietly to not give my position away instantly, though I wasn’t sure that it would help at all, in the end my brother could always sense where I was and so could I, to a lesser extent. Skaftá pretends to not know where I am, keeping her eyes on my brother as he paddles about, looking for me. It’s not long before he figures out that I must be hiding behind our mother. Now I could go back to the other side again but that would be boring, instead I decide to “attack” him one more time. After taking another deep breath I dive down again and look for my brother. He’s easy enough to spot with how much splashing and splattering he’s causing.</p><p>I swim towards him as fast as I can. When he’s close enough, I wrap my arms around him and try to push him over. He didn’t see this coming at all, a surprised “eep” sounding noise leaves him and he ends up on his back, struggling, trying to turn around while I lie across him.</p><p>It takes a while but eventually he gives up and just resigns to his fate. Feeling generous I don’t let him suffer for too much longer and slide off of him, then help him to turn around again. As I’m pushing him over, I can’t shake the feeling that he feels larger already, while it feels wrong it would line up with what Scáthán told me about dragon’s ridiculous growth rates. Once my brother is back in an upright position, he splashes some water at me. <strong><em>“Meanie.”</em></strong> He growls at me.</p><p>I splash water back at him, making him cower to instinctively. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same or worse if you were in my position.” I reply with a deadpan voice.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s good to see you two have fun and while that was part of this trip, we’re mainly here so you can learn how to fly, sort of at least.” </em></strong>Skaftá interrupts us, directing her words first at us, then at my brother. <strong><em>“If you would follow me.” </em></strong>She turns around much quicker than I thought she would be able to and then disappears below the surface, my brother quickly follows suit, leaving only me and Scáthán floating about. I turn towards him and shoot him an asking look, he swims up to me and picks me up with his tail to place me on his back, where I hold on tight as he dives down into the depths too.</p><p>Luckily the water is incredibly clear, making it easy to spot where my brother and mother went. He’s struggling to stay underwater as his body naturally tries to float back up while he tries to mimic his mother’s movements. Skaftá has already made it to around three hundred feet (100m) under water where she draws wide circles as she seemingly flies through the depths at surreal speeds.</p><p>If it weren’t for the fact that I could feel the water I could feasibly think that we were all flying in a dark blue sky, the only thing giving away that they were swimming being their wings moving rather slowly as water is so much denser than air.</p><p>Scáthán stays near the surface, his wings occasionally breaking out of the water as he slowly moves them up and down following his wife’s movement. Dorn appears to be quickly figuring out how to move in order to propel himself forward. As I watch him, completely amazed by the speed at which he’s able to learn, I forget how long I’ve been down here and only when I feel my chest tighten and my vision blur do, I realize that I haven’t had any air in over a minute. I push myself off Scátháns back but don’t make it to the surface before my body forces me to open my mouth and inhale. Water rushes down my throat, fortunately my windpipe closes off just in time to prevent water from filling my lungs. Barely, I manage to stick my head out of the water to frantically suck in fresh air, then, less than a second later I throw up from all the salt water that I swallowed. Even once I emptied my stomach, I keep gagging and retching while the taste of stomach acid and ocean water fill my mouth.</p><p>Suddenly, I feel myself getting lifted out of the water, after a short moment of confusion I realize that Scáthán had come up from below such that I wound up on his back. When I look up, I am met with his eyes, a glimmer of worry in them, but once he sees that I’m alright it quickly fades. I lie down flat on his back, now that the adrenalin was leaving, I could feel all the exhaustion, my arms and legs shake from a mixture of cold and tiredness, my eyes become droopy and even breathing feels hard all the sudden.</p><p>That is when I sense Scátháns mind brushing against mine, then quickly meshing in and a gentle trickle of warm fuzzy energy fills my head first, then my chest and lastly my hands and legs. My skin tingle slightly and as this wave of warmth washes over me it takes all the exhaustion with it. Feeling very revitalized, I take a deep breath and sit up straight before opening my eyes again. I find Scáthán looking down at me with a smile. <strong><em>“Feeling better?” </em></strong>I give him a single vigorous nod and stand up, ready to jump back down into the water again. <strong><em>“Before you do that, just wait one more moment.” </em></strong>He moves his head in front of me, staring at me intently. <strong><em>“Wouldn’t want you to nearly drown again.” </em></strong>His eyes light up oh so slightly, his pupils narrow into tiny slits and then suddenly the glow disappears again, and his eyes return to normal. <strong><em>“No more need to worry about air for a while now.” </em></strong>He winks at me and dives down again.</p><p>My initial reaction is to try and keep my balance as his back shifts below me, but it doesn’t take long for me to slip off. His rear slams into me with enough force to send my flying over a dozen feet (&gt;4m). As I tumble through the air, I lose what little orientation I had and just barely manage to catch some breath before crashing into the water and sinking several feet (1-2m) before the water absorbs my momentum and I begin to float to the surface again. As soon as my eyes catch a glimpse of the sun, I try my hardest to swim towards it, a split second later my head breaks through the surface and I gasp for air. After taking a moment to recover and shake off the dizziness, I realize that somehow the skin around my eyes, mouth and nose stayed completely dry. As I’m wondering why I can even feel a droplet run down my nose and turn left as it approaches my upper lip.</p><p>It doesn’t take long until I figure out that it must be a side effect of Scátháns spell.</p><p>Sure, enough when I dip my head under water, air bubbles form in front of my eyes, nose and mouth. The bubbles in front of my eyes act like a pair of goggles, letting me see with little issue. After a moment of hesitation, I carefully and slowly breathe in to see what would happen, fully expecting to fill my mouth with sea water because the bubbles around my mouth and nose feel way too small to be useful.</p><p>Surprisingly the bubble only shrinks a little before stabilizing, at that point I can breathe in as much as I want with no issue. A smile grows on my face. <em>“Thank you.” </em>I think to myself while picturing Scáthán as he cast this spell on me, immediately he responds with a happy <strong><em>“No issue.”</em></strong> and I can see him swim into view dozens of feet below me (18-21m) his head looking up at me and even if I can’t make out his eyes I can feel him staring at me, inviting me down into the black depths below.</p><p>After a moment of hesitation, I force myself to take a deep breath even though my body tells me to not, as expected the spell does its job and fresh air fills my lungs. It feels much like snorkelling, just without having a piece of plastic stuck in your mouth.</p><p>Before I attempt to dive down, I decide to see where Skaftá and Dorn are hiding. Spotting my brother is easy enough as the red of his body sticks out from the blue abyss. He has mostly figured out how to swim and while he isn’t as fast as our parents he moves at an admirable speed. Skaftá is much harder to spot since her scales and wings blend in with the water itself but I still manage to spot her outline after some looking around. While she’s still staying near Dorn she’s mostly playing around, only occasionally checking on him.</p><p>I take a deep breath before diving down towards Scáthán, who has been patiently circling below me, waiting for me. Never having been a particularly fast swimmer, it takes me much too long to reach him but still he patiently waits for me. Once I do finally make it, he begins circling me just fast enough so that I can barely turn at the same speed. Suddenly he dives down just to turn around and shoot upwards again from right below me. I curl up into a ball, bracing for an impact as it looks like he’s headed right for me but then I feel him fly right past my back, narrowly avoiding a collision.</p><p>The turbulences push me around like a piece of driftwood and by the time I regain my orientation and look around he’s gone from my view. Confused I look left, right and down but not a trace of him is to be seen and even looking up I see nothing. That is until I spot a few unusual ripples in the surface that look awfully like waves caused by something breaking through the water’s surface.</p><p>Knowing that he’s hiding in the air I try to spot his shadow, but the ocean is simply not still enough to allow me to make out more than the sun. Anticipating that he’s planning for some sort of grand re-entry I keep my eyes trained on the surface, even if it feels futile.</p><p>Soon enough I see a cloud of bubbles appear towards the edge of my vision and huge ripples run over the surface accompanied by a dull thump. Scáthán breaks out of the flurry of bubbles, heading right for me, covering the hundred odd feet (~30m) in a few seconds, only propelled by the momentum he built up above the surface. My brain tells me to swim away as clearly, he is going too fast and I should get out of the way, but my body doesn’t obey, so I end up just floating in place as I stare at him with wide open eyes as he darts towards me.</p><p>When his head is only a few feet away from mine he spreads his wings wide, immediately slowing down to a near complete stop, how his wings didn’t get torn off or at least dislocated by the forces at work eludes me. He comes to a full stop with his snout nearly touching my face and we just hover there, staring at one another, me thoroughly impressed at his agility, even under water, and him smugly grinning while he waits for a reaction.</p><p><strong><em>“Show-off.”</em></strong> Skaftás voice makes both of us flinch as it suddenly rumbled through our heads. I see his eyes dart upwards, then he quickly dives down, just in time to avoid her.</p><p>She chases after him, they both quickly disappear into the depths below, leaving me floating there, rather confused as to what I am witnessing.</p><p>Dorn, being abandoned just like me, swims up to me and begins circling me just like Scáthán did. I shoot him an asking look. He looks down to where our parents should approximately be, then back at me. <strong><em>“They are playing what is best described as tag I think.” </em></strong>He slows down until he floats in place next to me, still looking down into the abyss.</p><p>I spot two dark spots quickly emerging from the depths, now the roles seem to be reverser, with Scáthán chasing Skaftá. In a matter of seconds, they appear from the darkness below and race past us and through the surface, into the air. After the water settles down again, we look at each other and laugh a little. Neither of us had ever witnessed something like this, and while I could feel that my brother was a lot less surprised by it than I was, though still taken aback by how sudden it all started.</p><p>A shockwave runs through us as our parents crash back down into the ocean, Skaftá is closely followed by Scáthán, so close in fact, that the cone that she left in the water doesn’t get to fully collapse. The turbulences thrown him around a little, Skaftá uses her chance to put some distance between them. Scáthán shakes his head and then propels himself towards her, she waits for him to draw close before swimming upwards herself but she’s too slow, he manages to “tag” her by lightly nipping her tail. Then he immediately continues his path downward, speeding up considerably.</p><p>Skaftá growls, her voice making the water and my body reverberate, before following him.</p><p>I wonder how neither of them have gotten the bends yet, but then again, they aren’t from this world so maybe their bodies are somehow immune to it? My brother snaps me out of my thoughts by lightly nudging my shoulder. <strong><em>“How about we follow them? I feel like it’ll be interesting to watch.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod but then realize that I could never keep up with them. <strong><em>“Just hold onto my shoulders, I’ll try my best to keep up.” </em></strong>I carefully place my hands on his shoulder, his scales feel slightly warm to the touch and the water makes it hard to hold on, so that when he flaps his wings to move forward, I slip off immediately.</p><p>He angles his wings upwards and uses his momentum to swim a swift loop up and below me again.</p><p>This time I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on tight.</p><p>He turns his head and shoots me an asking look. I take a deep breath and nod, I’m ready.</p><p>With a couple quick flaps of his wings he sends us barrelling down into the depths below, the water tries hard to pull me off his back, but I manage to hold on.</p><p>It grows dark rather quickly, just a minute after we took off it feels like the sun has set, I can’t see much further than a ten feet (3m) and looking back all I can see is a single bright spot, everything else is swallowed by darkness.</p><p>Another thing that I can’t ignore at those depths is the water pressure, while the spell that lets me breathe seemingly adjusted to the pressure, the rest of my body hasn’t, my head feels like an elephant is stepping on it. Luckily Dorn notices too and slows our descend.</p><p>Before long he’s swimming in circles, trying to figure out where to go. <strong><em>“Where do you think they went? Are still further down?” </em></strong>He turns his head left, right up and down, I can feel he’s trying to reach for them with his mind but can’t seem to sense them, neither can I.</p><p>The pressure is beginning to grow unbearable, like my body will give way any moment now. Much to my disappointment I’ll have to slowly make my way back to the surface.</p><p>I let go off my brother and very carefully start paddling up, he stays near me, slowly circling me while still keeping an eye out for our parents.</p><p>Soon curiosity gets the better of him and he drifts off, continuing towards the sea floor, leaving me to my own devices.</p><p>Now that I’m on my own I begin to wonder why our parents are hiding from us like that. Maybe it’s just of their game. I’m sure there couldn’t be any malice in their intentions, yet it feels weird.</p><p>I also wonder what I’ll do when I’m back at the surface, I’ll be all on my own and the link to my brother is growing weak as the distance increases. I’ll be quite helpless if anything were to happen to me.</p><p>Unease settles in my gut but at the same time is there really anything I can do? I can’t dive far enough to catch up with them, I can’t fly, I can’t contact them, I can’t do anything but wait.</p><p>As if I jinxed myself, I spot something that roughly looks like a shark passing by in the far-off distance, just at the edge of my vision.</p><p>After the initial panic fades, I remind myself that all sharks that live here are too small to pose any major threat, if anything it’s probably curious what this weird looking fish is doing in its territory.</p><p>I decide to try my best and ignore it while continuing upwards, I’m already half way there already.</p><p>At this time, I also feel my brother give up and begin his return to the surface, he’s much quicker than me so he’ll likely catch up with me in a minute or less.</p><p>With my subconscious put at ease I can relax and take a look around, the shark is gone and has been replaced by some random small fish, the surface is only another three or four minutes away, everything will be alright. We’ll just have to wait out our parents.</p><p>When I take a look down though, I immediately tense up again, I’m not sure but I can’t shake the feeling that there is a shark somewhere down there, I can’t be sure if it’s just my eyes playing tricks on me, but my instincts tell me to flee, but where?</p><p>Up isn’t an option, since that’s how they hunt their prey, shoot up from below and catch them near the surface, sideways won’t help either and approaching it is just silly.</p><p>Suddenly what I thought to be a shark scurries away ridiculously fast, as if it were swimming for dear life.</p><p><em>“But why?”</em> I wonder quietly, I narrow my eyes and try to spot anything in the dark blue abyss beneath. The only explanation could be that either Skaftá or Scáthán scared it off but then I should be able to see them, yet I can’t.</p><p>I try to spot my brother and while the mental link is weak, I can narrow his location down enough to try and spot him, but he seems to be outside of my view too.</p><p>I turn my eyes back to where the shark was just swimming and scan the general area.</p><p>Finally, I see what caused it to flee, the outlines of what can only be one of my parents becomes barely visible. I sigh a sigh of relief and almost continue my way back to the surface when I decide to take another look to try and figure out who exactly is swimming below me.</p><p>Then I realize that I wasn’t looking at the back of a dragon but its front and that I can now very clearly see that it’s Scáthán and that he’s coming towards me, very, <strong>very</strong> quickly.</p><p>My eyes widen and I try to scramble out of the way lest he’ll slam right into me.</p><p>But my flailing fails to get me anywhere.</p><p>I look down again, hoping that he’ll divert his path and that this is just him toying with me again.</p><p>But no, he’s still coming towards me, it’ll only be seconds till he’ll crash into me. He also appears to be grinning, that self-satisfied smug grin.</p><p>I give up trying to get out of his way and pray that he’s got some sort of plan that doesn’t involve me getting hit by a proverbial truck.</p><p>When he’s close enough to touch, he suddenly opens his mouth wide, leaving me with just enough time to take a good look down his throat before darkness engulfs me as he shuts his mouth.</p><p>I can feel myself hitting his tongue, getting pressed into it as I get accelerated to his speed, then how it shifts beneath me and pins me against his upper gum.</p><p>All this happens too fast for me to react at all and by the time I try to struggle he’s squishing me into the roof of his mouth with enough force to immobilize me.</p><p>A few seconds that feel like an eternity he lowers his tongue again, I immediately curl up into a ball and shut my eyes.</p><p>It takes me a couple seconds to gather my thoughts again and remind myself that I’ve been in here once before and was fine, then I notice that the water is gone. Was that why he I got squashed into his upper gum? So that he could push the water out of his mouth?</p><p>With a crash he breaches through the surface, cutting off my train of thought as he opens his mouth again and drops me into the ocean.</p><p>For a moment I’m entirely unable to move, trying to figure what the fuck just happened and why, luckily the spell still lets me breathe.</p><p>Once I recover, I poke my head out of the water and stare up at Scáthán. “Why?” I ask him quietly.</p><p>He grins widely and responds, <strong><em>“Why not?” </em></strong></p><p>I tilt my head and wonder if he’s serious, there’s about a million reasons. “You mean besides scaring me shitless, risking major injuries, traumatizing me and probably making Skaftá angry?”</p><p><strong><em>“You’re being a bit dramatic. I can tell you weren’t traumatized, the risk of you getting hurt was minimal and it’s not like you hadn’t gone through something similar already.” </em></strong>He responds after a short delay.</p><p>“Oh, you mean the one time I plucked wool from your teeth? I at least knew what I was getting myself into and could see it coming.” I shake my head, still trying to wrap my head around his thought process.</p><p>He grumbles quietly <strong><em>“You got a point.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“Thank you.” </em>I think to myself and look up at him again. “I can’t stay mad at you but please, next time when you’re “just” playing make sure I know too. Okay?” I make sure to exaggerate the air quotes.</p><p>Just as Scáthán is about to answer Dorn pops up next to me and looks between the two of us. I can feel he’s just as confused as I am.</p><p>“I guess this is how you would play with your offspring but also keep in mind I’m merely human, I’m fragile and sensitive, or “dramatic” as you call it. I’m all for messing around as long as I know what I’m getting myself into.”</p><p>He nods and I can sense that he feels remorseful. <em>“Wait, did I just semi scold a dragon?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You sure did.”</em></strong> Dorn answers immediately.</p><p>I smirk a little then shake my head, this is just ridiculous on every level.</p><p>Just as silence settles between the three of us, Skaftá makes her entry, poking her head out of the water first, the rest of her body following suit.</p><p>She looks down at me and my brother and once she sees that we’re fine glares at Scáthán.</p><p>Before she can say anything, I interject. “It’s okay, we got it handled.”</p><p>She pauses for just a moment and her eyes dart between me and Scáthán. She bares her teeth for a split second and snarls <strong><em>“Alright then.”</em></strong></p><p>An awkward silence settles, no one knowing what to do or say.</p><p>Dorn gently tugs on my right arm with his mouth. <strong><em>“Catch me if you can.” </em></strong>He says right as he goes for another dive.</p><p>I take a moment to react and by the time I stick my head under water he’s already a hundred feet (30m) away from me. I can feel him taunting me. <strong><em>“You’ll never catch me.” </em></strong></p><p>While I know that he’s speaking the truth, I’ll be damned if I won’t try.</p><p>So, I swim towards him as fast as I can, putting all my might into every stroke and at first it seems to work, I draw ever closer, but he still manages to stay ahead of me.</p><p>After the chase has gone on for a couple minutes my arms begin to feel sore, yet Dorn isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.</p><p>I sigh and take a break to look around. We somehow ended up some two hundred feet (60m) under water again and I can feel the pressure giving me a light headache again.</p><p><strong><em>“Already tired sis?” </em></strong>Dorn asks, clearly intent on making me chase him more.</p><p>I won’t give him the satisfaction of giving up yet, so I take a deep breath and go after him again.</p><p>He dives down again, quickly putting more and more distance between us. Every stroke of my arms is starting to hurt, my muscles are tired and making it known.</p><p>I growl quietly and let stop again, seems I’ll have to give up. Dorn quickly comes back to me and swims circle around me, waiting for me to do something, clearly, he’s not ready to stop just yet.</p><p>Suddenly a gigantic shadow passes over us, both of us look up instinctively. It’s Skaftá, she must have followed and kept an eye on us, Scáthán is nowhere to be seen though.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry, he’s off gathering some food.” </em></strong>Her voice rings through my head, she sounds calm again, all her anger squibbed.</p><p><strong><em>“Let me help you a little Arya.”</em></strong> She says to me and only me, in a quiet hush voice. I can feel Dorn trying to listen in, but she easily keeps him out of my mind for the time being.</p><p>Her mind creeps more and more into mine, her thoughts intertwining with mine. Then I feel a stream of energy flood through my consciousness and my body.</p><p>She directs the energy into my legs and arms, they begin to tingle and itch.</p><p>As the flow energy ebbs away and her mind withdraws from mine, she swims past in front of me and winks. <strong><em>“Now go get him, it should be more than enough.” </em></strong></p><p>A slight grin settles on my lips, it seems the tables have turned for my brother.</p><p>I turn my head and look him in the eyes before slowly making a first stroke in his direction.</p><p>He senses something is off and takes off as quickly as he can.</p><p>All soreness is gone from my muscles and when I put all my strength into the next stroke, I almost lose control of myself because of how fast I end up going. Suddenly I find myself drawing closer and closer to my brothers’ tail. <strong><em>“Mom put a spell on you didn’t she.”</em></strong> I hear him yammer.</p><p>The tip of his tail isn’t even a foot away anymore when he turns his head to see me still drawing closer. <strong><em>“Unfairrrrr.” </em></strong>He quickly changes the angle of his wings and descends further down.</p><p>Even though I’m faster than him, he still has more control than I do.</p><p>Although he managed to put another dozen feet (4m) between us again I quickly catch up again. Now however, a new problem arises, the pressure is much too great at this depth, my body can’t handle it much longer and I won’t be able to catch him at this rate.</p><p>Just as I can feel a sense of triumph settle in his mind, Skaftá makes another entrance, blasting past both of us and swimming under my brother in a way that forces him to stop his descend and then forces him back up.</p><p>He growls and tries to swim past her but she’s too big and quick.</p><p>In a last-ditch effort, just before I to catch up he lets her bump into him and then pushes off her back with his hind legs as I reach out to grab onto his tail.</p><p>The incredible strength of his hind legs shows, he darts up faster than I’ve ever seen anything swim.</p><p>I follow him immediately, pushing off Skaftás back as well, but it’s not nearly as effective for me.</p><p>The lower density of his body compared to mine helps him swim back to the surface just a bit faster. I’m still catching up but I’m not sure I’ll catch him before he reaches the surface. Though once he gets there he’ll have to turn in some direction and then I’ll catch him for sure.</p><p>Slowly I inch closer and closer, he’s almost in my reach again but so is the surface. He’s not showing any signs of slowing down or turning and I wonder if he plans on jumping out of the water to lose me.</p><p>He breaks through the surface barely a body length ahead of me and continues to fly up while I drop back into the water after a rather short stint in the air.</p><p>I stay under water waiting for him to come back down but he doesn’t. I poke my head out of the water to see him circle some ten feet (3m) above, smugly grinning and feeling victorious.</p><p>How could I forget that he could fly? I shake my head and sigh, he has won this one, though I do wonder how he figured out flying so quickly, Scáthán took weeks to even take flight for the first time. Then again maybe him propelling himself out of the water helped and there are no obstacles to worry about here. Or he might just be a very fast learner.</p><p><strong><em>“Brace yourself.” </em></strong>Skaftás voice makes me jump a little and I suddenly see myself from below, bobbing along on the surface, rapidly growing closer, very rapidly. My heart drops and I wonder what she’s planning, then images of her flinging me out of the water with her head flash into my mind. I only manage to internally yell <em>“That’s insane.” </em>Before she hits me.</p><p>The impact knocks the air out of my lungs and sends me flying. A split second later I feel myself hit something and I instinctively hold onto it tight. I open my eyes again to see that she managed to hurl me right into Dorn, who is now squirming in my grasp.</p><p>My momentum sends us another three of four feet (1m) before we begin to drop again.</p><p>I thank Scáthán for putting the protection spell on Dorn, otherwise his struggles would for sure have resulted in major injury for me.</p><p>Seeing how isn’t making any progress in breaking free emboldens me to hold on even tighter, squeeze him even, making sure that he knows that I finally got him and that he isn’t getting away.</p><p>With a thud we fall into the ocean, he keeps squirming hard, jamming his claws into me with such force that even with the spell they still hurt.</p><p>Even though all his thrashing doesn’t free him, he’s not giving up, if anything his efforts grow more desperate. It almost feels like he has lost himself.</p><p>Just as I’m about to let go because I fear he’s going to hurt himself he goes for my throat but before he can sink his teeth into my neck his movement suddenly seizes, almost falls limp in my arms.</p><p><strong><em>“ENOUGH.” </em></strong>Skaftás voice bellows through our minds, stunning both of us long enough to drift apart.</p><p>When she lets Dorn take control of his body again, he rapidly blinks a couple times, then shakes his head and swims back to the surface. I follow suit immediately.</p><p>After we both had a few seconds to gather ourselves he swims up to me and wraps his legs and wings around me. <strong><em>“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” </em></strong>If Dorn were human, he would probably be crying right now.</p><p>I pat his back and return his hug. <em>“It’s alright, that’s what we have the protection spell for right.”</em> I try to calm him, but it doesn’t seem to help.</p><p><strong><em>“But I wanted to kill you, I wanted to tear your head off, to rip you to pieces. How could I? How could I ever even think to hurt my sister?” </em></strong>His hug grows tighter and tighter as he whimpers quietly.</p><p>Skaftá wraps her tail around us and puts us on her back. <strong><em>“It’s okay now Dorn, these things happen when we get carried away. That’s why I was there to keep an eye on you. Don’t worry okay, you’ll learn to control yourself soon.” </em></strong>She gently nuzzles her head against us, and I can feel Dorn breathe out and relax. He looks me into the eyes and slightly tilts his head, it looks like his eyes are slightly watery.</p><p>He slowly blinks and gently nudges his nose against my forehead. <strong><em>“Sorry.”</em></strong> Then he lets go off me and shakes the water off his scales.</p><p><strong><em>“I think that should be enough for you two for today. Scáthán will be back soon and he’ll take you back home while I’ll go gather food for myself and the two of you.” </em></strong>Skaftá licks her chops and I can feel that she’s already anticipating the hunt.</p><p><strong><em>“One more thing Arya. I’ll have to take your leftover magic energy, I’m not sure it’s safe to leave you with large amounts of magic energy in our body.” </em></strong>She carefully brings her head close until the tip of her snout rests against my forehead, suddenly I feel all energy get drained from me, I want to recoil but by the time I try to move I’ve already gotten too weak and end up just slouching backwards. <strong><em>“Sorry but I don’t want to take the risk.” </em></strong>She draws her head back and I can see a frown on her lips. Dorn helps me lie down on her back, my arms dangling down her side lifelessly, my heart beating slow and heavy and my breath running in deep, slow heaves. “Is this how I would actually feel without the help of magic?” I manage to mutter under my breath.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No, you’d probably be dead from exhaustion. I only took the excess amounts of magic energy out of your system. You should have enough left to recover reasonably quickly.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Should…” </em>I think to myself and sigh.</p><p><strong><em>“For now, the two of you would do well to just relax.” </em></strong>She stares off into the horizon.</p><p>Dorn and I nod in unison, neither of us feel like doing much anyway.</p><p>After some five minutes I already feel surprisingly good again, my heart has calmed down and my breathing has returned to normal, only the soreness in my muscles remain.</p><p>I ponder sitting upright again but decide that it’s not worth the effort, though I also begin to notice that I’m feeling quite cold.</p><p>It’s not long before quite cold turns into extremely cold and the shivering seems to only make it worse.</p><p>If I’m going to stop the windchill I’ll have to somehow get rid of my wet clothes.</p><p>With some struggling I sit up and take off my shirt. I try to wring the water out of it but even then, the wind chills me down quite hard.</p><p>Skaftá takes notice and moves her head right in front of me. <strong><em>“Let me help you with that.” </em></strong>Her eyes begin to glow dimly, and my clothes begin to cool down even more at an accelerating pace.</p><p>It feels as though the blood in my legs is going to freeze, I lose control of my hands and my breathing stops as the cold shock sets in, then suddenly it stops, and I feel a comforting warmth spread through my skin. <strong><em>“There was too much water to dry you with just hot air so I had to apply some tricks which sadly meant that you’d be extremely cold for a bit.” </em></strong>She smiles weakly. <strong><em>“At least you should feel a little warmer now.” </em></strong>I answer with a solemn nod and quickly put on my shirt again. This is much better than before, the wind only feels slightly chilly, though I do find myself still shivering a little.</p><p>Luckily Dorn is all too happy to plop himself down on top of me and shield me from the wind with his wings, it’s not perfect but at least I hopefully won’t catch pneumonia now.</p><p>Only another ten minutes later I hear the sound of wings cutting through the air, followed by the sound of Scáthán landing not far from us. Skaftá swims over to him and she lifts us onto his back with her tail.</p><p>After a short, wordless conversation between the two of them she takes off and Scáthán follows suit. He turns slightly right while she turns slightly left and soon, she disappears over the horizon.</p><p>We spent most of the flight back in silence, Dorn and I are too tired and Scáthán is too busy flying with a full belly in rough winds while carrying a medium sized shark in his claws.</p><p>Before I realize it, Scáthán lands in the caves entrance. Dorn hops off my back and glides to the ground, Scáthán drop our dinner onto the ground and heads deeper into the cave. Dorn follows us, dragging the shark carcass along with him.</p><p>I feel Scáthán lie down, seconds later his tail wraps around my waist and he lifts me off his back, resting me on the makeshift bed.</p><p>Lazily I roll onto my back and slowly sit up, I’ve rarely felt so tired, yet I still feel unable to sleep, the cold still sits in my bones.</p><p>I crawl over to Scáthán, who is all too happy to wrap me in his tail from head to toe and tuck me under his wing.</p><p>After snuggling into his tail and sighing a sigh of relief, I slowly blink a few times and wait for sleep to overwhelm me.</p><p>Outside I can hear Dorn tear into the shark, he must be truly ravenous.</p><p>I murmur a “Good night” and shut my eyes but end up in a weird trance like state, too tired to fall asleep.</p><p>Eventually, Dorn finishes his dinner and joins me under Scátháns wing, I wrap my arms around his neck, and I feel him nuzzle my head.</p><p>A slight smile creeps across my face and I finally manage to fall asleep.</p><p>The three of us sleep through the night like the dead.</p><p>Dorn is the first one to stir in the morning, he tries to stretch but his sore muscles make him yelp and curl up instead.</p><p>His cry wakes both Skaftá and Scáthán and their movements in turn wake me up.</p><p>I try to reach out and rub his head, but I too end up groaning instead as pain shoots through my arm and shoulder.</p><p>I can feel that Dorn is confused, wondering why his body is giving him so much pain, he looks to me and then to his parents looking for help.</p><p><em>” Don’t worry brother, this happens when you overwork yourself, it’ll go away soon.” </em>I think to myself while focussing my attention on his mind.</p><p>Our parents nod in agreement and Skaftá gets up to lift him up and carry him to bed.</p><p>I decide to follow them and do my best to make Dorn comfortable. While getting my up my legs ache but after taking the first two steps it isn’t so bad anymore.</p><p>I lie down next to him and he immediately tries to wrap his wing around me but flinches as soon as he moves it more than an inch, he still keeps trying but I grab his wing and gently push it back onto his side. <em>“Just get comfortable and lie still okay.” </em>He pauses and looks at me for a second, then carefully gets himself comfortable. Once he’s done, I snuggle up to him and wrap my arms around him.</p><p>Dorn murrs contently and wraps his tail around one of my legs.</p><p>In the meantime, Skaftá has begun to make a quite a large campfire next to us by breaking one of the larger trees up with her jaws and then carefully arranging the pieces with her claws.</p><p>Once she’s done, she takes a deep breath and bathes the wood in fire for a couple seconds, setting the wood ablaze with ease.</p><p>I worry a little about some sparks lighting our makeshift bed on fire but I’m pretty sure she’s already thought of that.</p><p>Her eyes take on a slight glow. Just then, a piece of wood pops and spits a glowing ember in our direction, but suddenly it bounces off an invisible barrier, back into the fire.</p><p>I look up at Skaftá again, she winks at me and then trots back to where she slept.</p><p><em>“Looks like there won’t be much happening today.”</em> I think to myself. <em>“And I think I like it.”</em></p><p>I stare into the flames and listen to the crackles and pops as the fire burns, soon I find myself zoning out yet again. Moments later I begin hearing the thoughts of my parents and Dorn again and until I manage to focus on one of them it all sounds like total chaos.</p><p>This time I decide to direct my attention towards Skaftás mind, curious as to what she’s dreaming about.</p><p>Once the noise subsides and the picture clears, I find myself experiencing her memories of a recent hunt, or at least the swampland she’s prowling through looks familiar.</p><p>I also get a feeling that I’m not the only one watching, it seems that there’s three more minds watching.</p><p>Two of them feel entirely unfamiliar to me but the third one, I’m almost certain, must be Dorn.</p><p><em>“Maybe the two unfamiliar minds belong to the unhatched eggs.” </em>I wonder quietly.</p><p>This must mean that Skaftá is showing them this memory to teach them how to hunt.</p><p>I return my attention to the memory that she’s currently recalling, to see her chase after a single cow.</p><p>Something appears different though, she’s not going nearly as fast as she could, she’s only casually jogging after her prey.</p><p>The cow almost manages to get away before it makes a misstep and gets stuck in the mire.</p><p>Skaftá casually strolls up to it and quickly releases it of its mortal coil.</p><p>The memory fades to black and it gets really quiet for a moment, then the next memory begins to slowly materialise itself, this one is from just a day prior and shows her teaching Dorn how to swim.</p><p>I watch the two of them zoom around under water for a bit longer before retreating back into my own mind, I didn’t want to disturb them any more than I already did.</p><p>By now my front had been warmed up quite nicely by the fire, so I turn around to warm my back for a little.</p><p>My eyes immediately fall onto Scáthán and Skaftá.</p><p><em>“When they sleep, they look a lot less dangerous, almost cute even.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>A smile grows on my lips as I think about how lucky I am to have been adopted by the two of them.</p><p>I couldn’t imagine anything better to happen to me.</p><p>Whilst I continue watching them, I feel a fuzzy warmth spread throughout me and I realize that I haven’t been as happy and calm in a long time.</p><p><em>“Thank you.” </em>I think to myself quietly.</p><p>Then I rest my head on my knees and idly stare at them.</p><p>I almost doze off at some point, only snapping out of it when my head rolls off the side of my knees.</p><p>I shake my head and rub my eyes. I wonder how much time had passed. I couldn’t tell but it must have been a while as my back is feeling quite hot.</p><p>Lazily, I get up and stretch. <em>“Time to dig through the box I guess.” </em>I think to myself as I carefully sneak through the cave, not wanting to wake the dragons.</p><p>While my every muscle aches with every step, it’s already gotten much more bearable and I manage to almost walk normally again.</p><p>I kneel down and carefully open the box. On top I find the remaining apples, haphazardly strewn across, they’ve developed quite a few brown spots but still look edible enough. I shrug, grab one and take a bite, it tastes no different, so I figure I’ll eat them now before they actually go bad.<br/>Under that I find a hand full of shirts, underwear and pants. Enough to get me through the next couple weeks for sure.<br/>I hold one up to me and by the looks of it they all seem to be the same. Plain white shirts and underwear and blue jeans. <em>“Cleaning those will be fun.” </em></p><p>Putting the clothes aside, I take a look deeper into the box.</p><p>I find what looks to be a winter blanket, it’s surprisingly heavy, yet soft. <em>“That will come in handy very soon. I should probably start using it now, it’s been getting really cold recently.”</em></p><p>I throw the blanket over my shoulder and wrap myself in it, hopefully it won’t end up soaked with water.</p><p>I reach into the box again reach for the next thing.</p><p>It’s a dark green backpack of some hiking brand apparently. <em>“How... Where did he get this from?”</em></p><p>I furrow my eyebrows, but I can’t come up with any explanation. I shake my head and put the backpack aside, the two of them are full of wonders.</p><p>I reach into the box once again but this time my hands only find cardboard. I lean forward and take another look into it and indeed it’s empty.</p><p>After putting the backpack and clothes back into box and pick up the apple that I started eating.</p><p>I dig my teeth into it, so that I can hold it with my mouth, then I grab the edges of my blanket and stand up to head back to the campfire.</p><p>As I walk past Scáthán I notice that his eyes are open, I stop and slowly turn my head.</p><p><em>“Did I wake you up?” </em>I think quietly. <strong><em>“Not really.” </em></strong>He answers after a short delay, then he yawns and stretches his front legs, scraping his claws over the rocks.</p><p><em>“Thanks, you for gathering all these things for me.” </em>I nod in the direction of the box and move my left index finger to point at the blanket.</p><p>Scáthán winks at me and leisurely lifts his head. <strong><em>“No problem little one.” </em></strong>He gently nudges my head with the tip of his snout and lifts his wing as an invitation to cosy up next to him.</p><p>I gladly accept and sit down right by his side with the blanket loosely wrapped around me.</p><p>He carefully manoeuvres his tail under my blanket and wraps it around my torso a handful of times so that the tip of it rests across my shoulders.</p><p>Once I’m wrapped up her lies his head back down in front of me.</p><p>Since I can still move my arms, I use one hand to grab the two corners in front my chest and hold them together while I reach out with the other and gently pet Scátháns head.</p><p>He murrs happily and I feel his tail tighten slightly around me, a feeling that I’ve come to appreciate a lot, it’s probably the closest they can get to hugging me.</p><p><strong><em>“If you ever get cold again, just go and wake one of us up.” </em></strong>I nod slowly, while it may take a while to warm me up, it feels much nicer. <strong><em>“It doesn’t have to take that long.” </em></strong>He winks, then his eyes take on a weak glow and suddenly I feel the temperature under the blanket rapidly rise to roughly 85°F (30°C).</p><p>I take a moment to realize what’s happening, but when I finally figure out what he did the widest smile spreads across my face. <em>“Thank you! I keep forgetting that you are capable of magic.” </em></p><p>He grins widely. <strong><em>“No problem, I very much enjoy your reaction every time.” </em></strong>The glow in his eyes fades but the blanket keeps most of the warmth in for now.</p><p>I resume gently rubbing his head, while soaking up the warmth. <strong><em>“You can be rougher, don’t worry about hurting me.” </em></strong>I stop and tilt my head a little. <em>“Really? You won’t get startled or anything?”</em></p><p>He lifts his head a little and nods. <em>“Alright.” </em>I think to myself and pat the top his head like one may pat a horse. Scáthán murrs happily, quite a bit louder than usual. <strong><em>“You got it, but maybe don’t do that right on top of my head. It’ll probably give me a headache.” </em></strong>I nod and move my hand to the front of his head, between his eyes and nostrils.</p><p>I start massaging his scales with all my strength while carefully watching his reaction.</p><p>He rapidly blinks a few times, then tilts his head oh so slightly and then closes his eyes while contently humming.</p><p>I laugh quietly, sometimes they aren’t all that different from your usual pet.</p><p>While I rub his head, I pick the apple back up and continue nibbling away at it.</p><p>After some fifteen minutes my arm grows tired and while I try to ignore it and keep going my muscles quickly start hurting so bad that I have to stop.</p><p>I sigh and just drop let my arm hang limp, frustrated that I’m so unfit.</p><p>Scáthán opens one of his eyes and looks at me. <strong><em>“Don’t be sad Arya, I don’t mind that you’re tired. Yesterday would have been exhausting for every human, just look at your brother. If a dragon gets sore muscles that means something.” </em></strong>He moves his head closer until his scales brush against my knees. <em>“You and Skaftá did help me out a ton with your magic, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything.” </em>I finish the last bite of my apple and lean back into Scátháns side.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“All I did is help you breathe under water and magic energy only goes so far. Your body still needs to do some of the work. Besides, you did quite a bit of swimming without magic assistance.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>“Yeah, yeah.” I murmur under my breath.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey. You shouldn’t compare yourself to us, that’s just foolish. I know you still feel like you’re a burden on us. You aren’t.” </em></strong>His voice sounds like he’s chastising me and building me up at the same time.</p><p><em>“I just really wish I wouldn’t be so utterly defence and useless. I’ve been like that all my life and with you around it’s more evident than ever.” </em>Even though I felt like I had accepted the thought of being a lost cause thinking it out like that still stings.</p><p>Scáthán lifts his head and turns to face me with his snout just a fraction of an inch (~1cm) away from me. I stare into his eyes and he into mine for what feels like an eternity. <strong><em>“We’ll train you then.” </em></strong>He pauses for just a second. <strong><em>“We’ll teach you how to control your mind, we’ll teach you how to use magic and we’ll teach you how to hunt.” </em></strong></p><p>I take a moment to process what he said, images of magic fuelled grandeur run through my head. <strong><em>“Not so fast Arya, especially your magic abilities will suck for a long time. It’ll be months if not years before you’ll be able to do anything useful with it.” </em></strong><br/>Suddenly being brought back to earth by his words I remind myself of what he said a couple days ago, magic can’t violate causality.</p><p><strong><em>“Just always remember, there’s no use in comparing yourself to us or others.” </em></strong><br/>I nod, though I know that it’ll be a while before I can even think about getting out of that habit.</p><p>We’re interrupted by a rustle, followed by a meek growl and grumble.</p><p><em>“Sounds like Dorn is awake.” </em>I close my eyes and try to listen for his mind.</p><p>With Scáthán so close it’s pretty difficult to hear anything but his thoughts but with some trying I can manage to fade out his presence enough to sort of sense what’s behind him.</p><p>Just barely I can make out my brothers’ mind, slowly moving towards us.</p><p>I open my eyes again, Scáthán had moved his head to take a peek and I can see him slowly turn his head, presumably watching Dorn. I lean to the right in an attempt to peek around Scátháns wing and spot my brother.</p><p>He has almost made it over to us, his steps look slightly awkward still but much better than before his nap.</p><p>Scáthán, seeing that Dorn is doing just fine, lies his head back down.</p><p>Dorn stops next to Scátháns neck, looking for a way around it but since his neck tail form a circle around me, he has no choice to try and climb over his father’s neck.</p><p>It all goes smooth at first, he places his paws between the spikes and with some effort pushes himself up, then moves his paws on to the ground on the other side.</p><p>Now he finds himself in quite the predicament though, his hind legs can’t push him off with enough force to send him over and he has nothing to grab onto and pull on the other side either.</p><p>I have to hold back my laughter as I watch his struggles to try and move either forward or backwards.</p><p>After a minute I reach out to help him, but he looks at me and says. <strong><em>“It’s fine I got this.” </em></strong>Then he continues struggling. I shake my head and facepalm, I guess I’ll have to let him struggle then.</p><p>Some more time passes before he gives up and falls limp.</p><p>I look at him and raise my eye brows. <em>“How about now?”</em></p><p>He growls quietly and tries, fruitlessly, one more time to free himself. <strong><em>“Fine…”</em></strong></p><p>I place my grab his front paws and pull him towards me. He’s heavier than it looks, and his paws slip my grip, luckily the spell protects me as his claws slips through my fingers.</p><p>I move the blanket aside to be able to move more freely, Scáthán also loosens his tail at the same time.</p><p>I crack my knuckles and proceed to grab his front legs just below the shoulder. I give it my all, even putting a foot against Scátháns neck and pushing into it.</p><p>Once I manage to pull Dorns hip over his tail easily follows. Neither of us expect the sudden loss of resistance and I end up toppling over with him falling onto me.<br/>His weight knocks the wind out of me and his squirming, trying to get off me doesn’t help either.</p><p>As soon as he manages to get off me, I sit up, still a little dazed, and take a deep breath. <em>“That was unexpected.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>Dorn shakes his head. He seems just as dazed as I am. <strong><em>“Thanks sister.” </em></strong>He looks up at me and cracks a tiny smile.</p><p>I nod and pat his back. <em>“No problem.” </em>I get myself comfortable on the blanket again and wrap it around me, even though I only removed it moments ago it already cooled down quite a bit.</p><p>Dorn crawls under the blanket too and tries to get himself comfortable on my lap but he’s simply too big to fit so instead he squeezes in between me and the blanket and rests his neck and head on my lap. I use my free hand to pet his neck and head.</p><p> </p><p> He snuggles up to me and rubs his head against my stomach while murring happily. In secret I’m kind of happy that he didn’t fit on my lap, I don’t think I could bear his weight for long but also couldn’t bring myself to shoo him off.</p><p>It’s not long before he’s sleepy yet again and struggles to keep his eyes open. Our father had already fallen asleep again a while ago, though I’m not convinced that he’s actually fully asleep and I’m feeling a little loopy too, so I decide it’s best to get comfortable before Dorn falls asleep and I’ll be stuck sitting here like this.</p><p>I gently nudge him in an attempt to get him to move so I can lie down. He takes a moment to realize what I want from and then groggily moves over to let me lie down.</p><p>The instant my head hits the ground I can already feel him cosy up to me again. <em>“Not so sleepy now, are we?” </em>I think to myself and wrap my arms around him before he can lie down and pull him close.</p><p>I can feel him flinch and squirm as he’s taken by surprise by my sudden hug, though it only lasts a couple seconds before he relaxes again. He twists his neck to look at me and makes his displeasure known by snarling at me. When he notices that I’m thoroughly unimpressed by his antics he grunts and wrinkles his nose.</p><p>Afterwards he rests his head and neck on the floor so that I can use it as a pillow and that his head is next to my face.</p><p>I rest my head on his neck and move one hand to rub his head a little more. I quite like having someone who I can mess around with.</p><p>Just as I’m about to put my arm back around his chest he quickly licks the entire inside of my palm and my fingers, covering them in saliva. Now it’s my turn to wrinkle my nose and groan.</p><p>I quickly wipe my hand on his shoulder, much to his dismay, but he stays quiet and accepts it.</p><p> </p><p>After shaking the last remnants of his saliva off my hand I rest it on his chest again. He places his paws on top of my hands and we end up “holding hands” if you can call it that.</p><p>Dorn quickly falls asleep afterwards and I use the next few minutes to relax and enjoy our closeness.</p><p>Eventually I drift off to sleep too and while I don’t end up dreaming, I can still sense my brother being close even as I sleep.</p><p>Both of us get a few hours of sleep before Scáthán nudges us awake, announcing that Skaftá had returned with dinner for the three of us.</p><p>Dorn is the quickest to get up and rush over to his mother. It almost looks like he forgot about his sore muscles, or did he already fully recover? While I still sit there, reluctantly trying to get up, Scáthán walks over to her, they rub their heads together. Seemingly as a display of affection or thanks, while Dorn sits on his haunches in between them, intently staring at his mother.</p><p>Skaftá lowers her head and opens her mouth a little to let a literal flood of trouts flow onto the floor, it’s easily 200 pounds (90kg) of fish if not more. Dorn begins tearing into them nearly immediately, again swallowing some of them whole.</p><p>While he’s busy scarfing down his dinner, Skaftá makes her way back to her sleeping spot, dragging a mangled cow carcass behind her, it looks like it got severely crushed or something.</p><p>As she drags the cadaver past Scáthán. She lets go of it and he all too happily picks it up off the floor. He doesn’t even bother chewing much as most of the bones are already shattered judging by how to body contorts when he lifts it up. Mere seconds later he has swallowed his meal, leaving nothing behind.</p><p>I slowly shake my head, it’s quite ridiculous how quickly they can consume a metric ton of food and leave no traces too. It makes me wonder whether or not dragons are responsible for those mystery disappearances that happen occasionally, it would certainly make sense.</p><p>Whilst I was busy thinking, Scáthán had already lain down behind me. <strong><em>“Not hungry?” </em></strong>He asks me, making me jump a little. “Uh…Oh…Uhm….” I stutter and hastily get up. “Actually yes, I was just too fascinated by you and Dorn.” I can hear his grumbling laughter behind me and feel his and Skaftás amusement swash over into my consciousness. When I sit down next to my brother, I realize that I don’t have a way of preparing the fish anymore, we left the makeshift knife and pan behind. I pick a fish out of the by now significantly smaller pile and hold it up to my face. <em>“I wonder if I could risk eating one raw.” </em></p><p>I stare at the scales of the trout, pondering my options, when suddenly I feel something tug on it.</p><p>I look down to see Dorn trying to snatch the fish from my hands with a big smug grin on his face.</p><p>“No.” I growl and yank it out of his mouth, he hadn’t dug his teeth in too far yet, so he only ends up with a few pieces of gills and some scales. Not wanting to be so easily defeated, he stands up on his hind paws and uses my shoulder to prop himself up. I try to lean away from him and hold the fish as far away from him as I can, but my arm is no match for his long neck. Just as he’s about to snag my dinner from me Skaftá clears her throat loud enough to make both of us jump. Dorn lands on top of me, making me lose my balance. <strong><em>“No fighting over food Dorn, let her eat in peace. Afterwards you two can tussle all you want.” </em></strong>She growls in a low voice. Dorn scrambles to get off me and sits back down, pretending nothing happened.</p><p>I slowly sit up, shake my head and take a deep breath. Even though her scolding wasn’t directed at me I still feel intimidated too. I nudge Dorn and hold the fish out to him. <em>“If you want, you can have the upper half, I wouldn’t eat the head either way and the entire thing is a bit much for me too.” </em></p><p>He nods and carefully takes a bite out of the fish, his eyes fixed on Skaftá.</p><p>As soon as his teeth cut the trout in half, he quickly pulls his head back and then swallows.</p><p>A weak laugh escapes my lips, he’s acting all careful and scared now but I’m certain that in no more than fifteen minutes all will be forgotten again.</p><p>My eyes return to the remaining half of my dinner, I still haven’t got a way of dealing with this…</p><p><strong><em>“Let me help you.” </em></strong>This time it’s Scátháns voice that rings through my head. I turn around to see what exactly his intent is. His eyes begin to glow with growing intensity until they unmistakeably give off light of their own. Seconds later a rock next to him splits in half with a snap, the sound makes me jump even though I was half expecting something like this. The glow in his eyes mostly subsides and he picks at the remains of the rock with his paw, then picks something up with his teeth and extends his neck towards me. He’s holding an oddly shaped slab of stone with two pieces that almost resemble cutlery balanced on it. I get up, still holding the fish in one hand, and take a step forward to take a closer look. Indeed, the two smaller pieces look like a deformed knife and a one toothed fork. A smile grows on my lips and I grab the larger stone slab with my free hand. <em>“Thank you very much.” </em>I admire how he managed to carve something like this out of a boulder within seconds, albeit heavily aided by magic.</p><p><strong><em>“No problem little one.” </em></strong>When he lets go of the rock, I nearly drop it, being taken by surprise by how heavy it still is. <strong><em>“Careful it’s heavy.” </em></strong>He quips with a grin on his face.</p><p>I narrow my eyes and sigh. <em>“Thank you very much again.” </em>I slap the fish onto my plate and carry it to the fire.</p><p>After placing it in the fire and picking my cutlery off it I notice that the remaining embers might be a bit weak for cooking. Begrudgingly I get back up and trot over to the pile of wood to pick out some smallish pieces.</p><p>I haphazardly dump them into the embers and while I wait for them to catch fire I sit down and gut the fish.</p><p>Gutting it goes so fast that the fire is still too weak so I use my time to pick out as many fishbones as I can. Finally, I figure the stone must be hot enough, so I gently place the two halves on it and much to my delight they immediately begin sizzling and popping.</p><p>My mouth waters at the thought of getting to eat soon, I didn’t realize just how hungry I had gotten.</p><p>Dorn joins me in watching my food cook, he looks and moves like has overeaten yet again. He drops his head in my lap and looks at me with tired eyes. <strong><em>“Eugh…My stomach hurts.”</em></strong> I hear him groan.</p><p><em>“Then eat less.” </em>I think to myself as I look over at what he left behind, a mere handful of fish.</p><p>He moans in displeasure and tries to get comfortable but even lying on his back doesn’t appear to help.</p><p>I carefully scratch the underside of his chin. <em>“Give it ten minutes I’m sure you’ll feel better then.”</em> He answers with a grumble and more writhing before finally settling down.</p><p>I take my fork and flip the pieces of fish around. Their underside looks gold brown and crispy.</p><p>My stomach growls and aches. “Soon…” I whisper as I look down at my tummy, it has shrunk noticeably, not that there was much to begin with. <em>“Heh, am I actually going to be fit for once in my life?” </em>I wonder quietly and poke my stomach. It doesn’t feel any different yet, but it’s also barely been two weeks.</p><p>A weak smile creeps across my face, then a rumble from my stomach reminds me that I still have food in the fire.</p><p>I flip the fish once more and see that the other side looks done too, so I skewer one piece and hold the steaming meat up to my face. Carefully, I blow on it and occasionally hold my index finger against it to check the temperature. As soon as it feels bearable, I take a bite and immediately regret it, while the outside isn’t too hot the inside is still scathing. I bend over and quickly breathe through my mouth, blowing clouds of steam through my teeth. “Haaaahhh, hot, hot, hot.” I groan and fan air at my face. Dorn immediately spins around and looks at me with worried eyes and I can feel Scáthán and Skaftás eyes on me and their minds probing into mine to see what’s wrong.</p><p>After an agonizing minute the fish becomes cold enough to swallow, even as it travels down my throat, I can still feel the heat of it.</p><p>The bottom of the piece, where I took a bite out of it is still steaming quite heavily. I purse my lips and sigh, time to wait some more then.</p><p>Only five minutes later I can’t take it anymore and take another careful bite, it’s still pretty hot, nearly unbearable but at this point I don’t care and begin eating. By now the meat has also cooled down enough to hold, so I grab it with both hands and tear pieces out of it.</p><p>With every bite I begin to chew and swallow faster and before long I’m scarfing down chunks of it without even chewing. That is until I hit the first bigger fishbone and choke on it, luckily it doesn’t get stuck and the first cough dislodges it. I swiftly pick it from my mouth and flip it into the fire.</p><p><strong><em>“Can you please be more careful? I don’t want to be forced to pluck something from your windpipe.” </em></strong>Skaftás says to me with a worried and mildly annoyed voice.</p><p>I pause just long enough to nod and then continue eating, though at a much more controlled pace.</p><p>Once I’m almost done, I realize just how big each of the halves was, almost two pounds (900g) each.</p><p>I take a look at the second piece, I for sure can’t finish that but luckily it appears that the fire has burnt down far enough so that it’s only simmering in its own juices. <em>“I’ll leave that till tomorrow then.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>Dorn notices that I’m done and looks up at me. I cock my head in the direction of our parents and begin to stand up.</p><p>He takes his sweet time to remove his head from my lap and then follows me at a snail’s pace.</p><p>Scáthán picks up my blanket with his tail and holds it up for me so I can easily wrap up in it and just as I’m done, he curls his tail around me and places me on the floor.</p><p>Dorn stops next to me and looks down at me with disappointment in his eyes as there’s no way for him to snuggle up to me now. He paws at Scátháns tail who had already begun unwrapping it.</p><p>I lift up the part of the blanket that has already been freed and Dorn immediately squeezes himself in. As soon as he gets comfortable Scáthán wraps us back up and places the tip of his tail under my head as a pillow. I smile and give him a nod of appreciation.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey and what about me?” </em></strong>Skaftá asks, pretending to be upset. <strong><em>“He gets all the attention and I get to sit here and be ignored?” </em></strong>She pouts but then immediately smiles.</p><p><strong><em>“Guess I’ll have to make myself hard to ignore.” </em></strong>She stands up and hops over to us, her landing making the ground shake. Skaftá lies down with her side right up against us, it’s beginning to feel quite claustrophobic in between them.</p><p>Then she wraps her tail around us as well, filling in the gaps that Scáthán left. Neither I nor my brother can move at all now, but we don’t mind in the slightest.</p><p>I tilt my head back and see them nuzzle their heads together, then lying down with their heads facing us. They both smile and rub their heads against one another before closing their eyes. Moments later their thought patterns shift as they fall asleep.</p><p>I look back at my brother and he too looks like he’s about to sleep with his eyelids halfway shut.</p><p>Somehow, I wiggle one arm free and gently pet his head, he tries to snuggle up to me but is too limited in his movement to do more than move his head</p><p>In the end he nuzzles his head against mine and shuts his eyes. I put my arm around his neck and shut my eyes.</p><p>I drift off to sleep without even realizing it and what feels like seconds later I find myself in a familiar dream world, sitting on my brother back. We’re drifting through deep space again.</p><p>Dorn begins flying somewhere, I couldn’t tell which direction, as directions don’t work in space.</p><p>I wonder where he’ll be taking us today, we’ve seen most of the extremes the universe has to offer.</p><p>Galaxies zip past us like dragonflies, barely more than just colourful lines and dots. Much to my surprise we end up in a galaxy that looks like ours, the Milky Way.</p><p>I’m even more surprised when we dive into the outer perimeter of it and end up in our solar system.</p><p>Is he taking me back to earth?</p><p>The first thing to greet us back home is a bunch of smaller rocks and chunks of ice floating about, the Kuiper belt. After a whole lot of nothing I spot a tiny, frozen planet, circling another equally tiny planet. This must be Pluto and his moon Charon. In its rough perimeter, there are another three much smaller moons floating about, I could never quite remember their names.</p><p>Soon we pass Pluto and fly deeper into the solar system, just minutes later we approach Neptune and its barely visible rings. Dorn approaches it slowly and lets himself glide through the upper atmosphere.</p><p> </p><p>As we approach the size of it becomes very evident, even though we’re still minutes away from the outer atmosphere the planet already takes up our entire field of view.</p><p>We pass a few thin white clouds. I couldn’t tell what they are made off but probably not water.</p><p>The clouds cast weak shadows onto another, much thicker, blue layer of clouds below. They enshroud the entire planet, giving it its blue appearance.</p><p>The pressure slowly rises as we our altitude drops though temperatures stay freezing at just a few dozen Kelvin.</p><p>Once we dip into the lower atmosphere the conditions around us change dramatically. Winds pick up speed with every meter, reaching upwards of 600mph (960km/h), temperatures begin to climb, and pressure rises sharply. The blue clouds of hydrogen, helium and methane engulf us, drowning out the weak shine of the sun. Dorn is all but powerless against the insane winds and lets them toss him around like a leaf during an autumn storm.</p><p>The winds force us deeper into the planet, closer to the presumably solid core and mantle.</p><p>We should be tumbling through absolute darkness, but something keeps illuminating the surrounding three or four (1-1,3m) around us, not that there is much to see to begin with. Nothing but blue gas with tiny shards of ice flying around at near supersonic speeds.</p><p>Eventually we reach an altitude at which temperatures and pressure are high enough to form water, methane and ammonia ice, it begins with just occasional chunks of it flying around but soon they’ve all but replaced the gasses that made up the atmosphere further up. We must have entered the transition area of the mantle. Yet there’s no solid ground in sigh, the winds have ripped up the surface and covered in a sort of fluffy snow several miles thick if not more.</p><p>The snow swallows us like a rock dropped into a lake and I notice that even though it looked stationary at first it isn’t. If this were the real world, we’d be dead for sure now as the ice would just grind us up into tiny pieces, even now, in a dream, I can tell that Dorn is uncomfortable and trying to escape.</p><p>His efforts prove fruitless though, the flow of the ice is much too quick still and at this rate we’ll be doomed to be tossed around for ever.</p><p>I can feel Dorn beginning to panic, he’s probably going to wake up any moment now.</p><p>Then suddenly I feel a bump and it feels like we begin to rise. I lean to the side and look down to see that something huge is pushing us upwards. I can’t tell what it looks like but I’m just glad it’s getting us out of this nightmare.</p><p>In just a minute we rise from icy hell into the much more bearable lower atmosphere and not much longer after we reach the upper layers where visibility is starting to get better.</p><p>I take another glance downwards to see what saved us.</p><p>All I see is something that barely sticks out from the blue of Neptune of presumably gigantic proportions as it stretches past the horizon in all directions.</p><p>Once we’re fully out of Neptune’s atmosphere Dorn pushes himself off and drifts away.</p><p>With increasing distance, it begins to dawn, the blue looked too familiar and as the outline becomes visible my jaw drops. Our saviour was a planet sized version of Skaftá.</p><p>She quickly flies deeper into the solar system, passing Neptune and Saturn, by the looks of it she’s nearly half the size of Neptune.</p><p>Dorn appears just as confused as me and we both watch her slowly disappear into the darkness.</p><p>Just as she’s about to fully fade away I think I can see her turn her head and wink at us, then a feeling of reassurance sets in. Dorn feels the same feeling of comfort flow through him at same time, neither of us know where it came from or why, but we don’t question it.</p><p>After another minute of stunned silence he takes off towards the next planet, Uranus.</p><p>I take another look back at Neptune, it’s in quite the state of disarray, Skaftás gigantic wings caused a ton of turbulence in its atmosphere, billions of tons of gas and ice were flung into outer space and I can watch gigantic storms spread throughout its atmosphere. If there were astronomers in this realm, they surely would be freaking out if they saw this.</p><p>As we approach Uranus Dorn corrects his course to just circle the planet instead of actually diving into the atmosphere of it, which is probably a good call as it’s not too different from Neptune.</p><p>The makeup of the atmosphere is almost identical, even the layout of it is a close match. The climate, especially in the lower layers is just as harsh as Neptune’s, if not worse in some regards.</p><p>The most interesting part about it, is its axial tilt of almost 100°, its rolling along its orbit unlike the other planets who all have a comparatively small axial tilt. Thus, it looks more like it’s rolling along its orbit.</p><p>Just as we’re about to fly in front of it we enter a cloud of tiny debris, we must have hit one of its small rings. The ice and rocks buzz around us like a swarm of flies and just as quick as they appeared, they disappear again.</p><p> </p><p>We’re both taken by surprise, neither of us noticed the rings. Dorn quickly turns around and dives through them again, dragging a small trail of icy debris behind him. He repeats this a few more times before adjusting his course to head towards the next planet Saturn.</p><p>I take one last look behind us to see the mess we made of Uranus’s rings. At first, I struggle to spot them at all but when I finally do, I notice some clear holes we punched into them.</p><p><em>“If we keep going at this rate, we’ll mess up every planet we visit… Though is it really something to be concerned about? It’s just a dream after all.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>I don’t get to worry about it much more though as we soon approach Saturn and the swarm of moons surrounding it.<br/>The first thing both of us notice is its gorgeous, vast rings. They’re much more prominent than Uranus’s and probably the planets most prominent feature besides its enormous size.</p><p>In a sense it’s not too different from Uranus, which I find quite surprising seeing how it’s so much bigger and very different in colour.</p><p>Saturn still consists mostly of Hydrogen and Helium with trace amounts of other matter. It’s atmosphere too is stirred up by gigantic storms with insane wind speeds on the regular.</p><p>We circle it a couple times, taking in its sheer size and the beauty of its clam yet incredibly destructive atmosphere. Saturn probably played a significant part in shaping the early solar system, however it always kind of stood in Jupiter’s shadow. In a sense Saturn feels like the lesser version of Jupiter, it’s bigger and “better” in just about every way.</p><p>
  <em>“Ironic isn’t it. Saturn is such a beautiful planet, yet it’s only feature that puts it above Jupiter is its rings. Luckily beauty is about more than just numbers.”</em>
</p><p>As Dorn is flying circles around this gigantic ball of gas and ice, I notice that the stars outside the solar system had decreased in numbers. Where you could previously see a bustling sky, filled with all sorts of glowing specs I could now almost count them. <em>“We’re closer to the sun so it makes sense that we can see less stars but not by this much.” </em>As I’m looking around, I see stars pop out of existence in front of my eyes. <em>“What’s happening here?” </em>I ask Dorn. However, I feel that he’s just as clueless as I am.</p><p>The remaining stars start disappearing rapidly and when I turn to look for the sun it is gone too and suddenly, we find ourselves floating in complete darkness. Fear grips my mind and Dorn feels uneasy too. What are we witnessing here?</p><p><strong><em>“Time to wake up you little sleepyheads.” </em></strong>We both hear Scátháns rumble through our minds and the darkness begins to fill with light. I shield my eyes with my hands and squint, the light feels blindingly bright.</p><p>Dorn plucks me off his back with his tail and wraps himself around me, covering his head and me with his wings in an attempt to keep the light away.</p><p>His wings can’t block the light out completely, but they do dim it quite a bit and slowly my eyes get used to it. When I finally feel like I can fully open my eyes without going blind I find myself back in the cave, still sandwiched between Scáthán and Skaftá, their tails tightly wrapped around me and Dorn so tightly I can barely move a finger.</p><p>I feel Dorn trying to move as well but he doesn’t have much more success than I did.</p><p>I turn my head and look up at Scáthán, he’s looking down at us with a gentle smile on his face.</p><p><strong><em>“Sorry to wake you up so rudely but it’s getting late.” </em></strong>He says as he cocks his head towards the caves entrance.</p><p>I try to look towards the entrance but when I raise my head, I end up with his tail right in front of my face. <em>“Right. If you could let, go off me I could actually get up.”</em></p><p>They both unravel their tails in unison, it feels quite trippy feeling their scales rub over me in different directions, my brain isn’t quite sure what to make of the sensation.</p><p>Once my parents removed their tails, I wind up lying on my blanket with Dorn sitting on top of me.</p><p>I try to get out from under him, but he puts more of weight onto me, leaving me immobilized.</p><p>I glare at him with my lips pressed together, forming a straight line. My stare and thoughts should be enough for him to know to get off me, but he just grins smugly in return.</p><p><em>“Fine.” </em>I think to myself and put my hands under where his front legs meet his torso and try to push him off to the side. I do manage to lift him up a little but when I try to shove him aside, he puts his paws down and pushes himself back on top of me.</p><p>His victory doesn’t last however, as Skaftá wraps her tail around him and plucks him off me. He tries to hold onto my leg with his tail but to no avail.</p><p>She lifts him half a dozen feet (2m) off the ground as he squirms and struggles, trying to break free.</p><p><strong><em>“What did I tell you about bullying her just because she’s weaker than you?” </em></strong>Skaftá scolds him, then flips him on his back and places him back on the ground.</p><p>Dorn throws himself left and right until he finally manages to roll back onto his feet.</p><p><em>“I could throw myself on top of him and pin him down like that… No, I shouldn’t that way I can at least keep the moral high ground.” </em>I watch him struggle for a moment, but it isn’t long before he manages to roll over. <em>“Though I’m not too sure he cares about morals much any way.” </em></p><p>Once he’s on his paws again he stretches and flaps his wings a few times.</p><p>Skaftá is still glaring at him and when he notices he cowers slightly. <strong><em>“Don’t you have something to say?” </em></strong>She asks him, her tone being back to normal though it’s easy to tell that she’s still mildly annoyed. Dorn tilts his head a little, then looks over to me. <strong><em>“Sorry sis, didn’t mean to.” </em></strong>He says meekly. I laugh just a few times and smile. <em>“Don’t worry about it.” </em><br/>Skaftá nods and lies down again.</p><p><strong><em>“Alright Dorn, time for us to go.” </em></strong>Scáthán makes his way towards the entrance of the cave. Dorn and I look at him a little confused. <strong><em>“You’re coming with me today to learn how to hunt and some light lessons on flying.” </em></strong>He stops and turns his head to look at Dorn.</p><p>Dorn sits there, looking between me and his father, pretty clearly not wanting to leave me.</p><p>
  <em>“It’ll be fine Dorn, don’t worry about me. If anything happens, I’m sure Skaftá will protect me.” </em>
</p><p>I hear her grumble affirmatively. Dorn still isn’t entirely convinced, and tip taps back and forth.</p><p>I get up and pet his head. <em>“I’ll be alright, I know you vouched to always be by my side and I deeply appreciate it. But you can’t be glued to my hip all the time.” </em>I can feel that he wants to disagree with me but can’t find any convincing arguments. <strong><em>“Alright, promise me to stay save please.” </em></strong>I kneel down to be at the same height as him and look into his eyes. <em>“I promise.” </em>He gently pokes my forehead with his snout, then turns around to follow his father who is still standing in the same place.</p><p>The two of them quickly head outside, leaving me and Skaftá behind. <em>“So, what’s your plan for me today? Surely you won’t be idly sitting around with me either.” </em>I had sensed that she had plans for me earlier but didn’t get to ask then.</p><p>She smiles and bows her head just slightly. <strong><em>“You’re right, though you should already know what it’s going to be.” </em></strong>I try to remember for a moment. <em>“Oh right, something about teaching me how to use my mind. Oh, and something about magic. At least that’s what I remember from yesterday.”</em><br/><strong><em>“That’s about right, we’ll start with the easier part for now. Magic will need a bit more time before it makes sense for you to even attempt anything with it.” </em></strong> She lifts one of her wings. <strong><em>“Why don’t you get comfortable, while today won’t be physically exhausting, I’m sure it’ll take quite some mental energy.” </em></strong>I don’t object getting to snuggle up against her scales and quickly sit myself down next to her. She’s quick to loosely drape her tail around me and rest her head in front of me.</p><p><em>“So…”</em> I fold my hands in my lap. <em>“What now?” </em>I excitedly await her instructions.</p><p><strong><em>“Well, it’s hard for me to give you verbal instructions on what to do to control your mind and actively look into other beings’ thoughts. But since you already managed to somehow get into the right state of mind on your own, I don’t think that’ll be much of a struggle for you.” </em></strong>I can feel her presence in my mind grow much stronger than usually. <strong><em>“And you won’t need to worry about disconnecting your mind from your body, I’ll be watching you closely and keeping you from straying too far.” </em></strong>I take a deep breath and snuggle into her tail, trying to get as comfortable as I can. I’m not sure what I’m feeling right now, it must be mix of excitement and dread. I’m excited to learn about these things that probably no other human has learned but at the same time dread stepping into this totally strange and uncharted territory. <strong><em>“For now, we’ll start slow and easy, I’ll just need you to zone out and relax. Don’t worry too much about getting your thoughts to settle down. I’ll help you out with that.”</em></strong> I nod and rub my hands. Excitement has just about fully washed away the dread and fear. <strong><em>“One last thing, if you do manage to zone out you should can try directing your mind places. It’ll take some active thinking on your part to do that and if you think too hard about it, you’ll probably slip back into the real world. It’s a relatively thin line to walk but I’m sure you can do it.”  </em></strong>She smiles and winks at me. <strong><em>“Now I’ll shut up and leave you be. I’ll still be watching you closely though, just because you can’t hear me doesn’t mean I’m not there anymore.” </em></strong>Suddenly her presence in my mind fades away and for the first time in a while I feel like I’m fully alone in my head, it feels quite lonely and empty without having the background noise of their thoughts around anymore.</p><p><em>“Alright, time to get to it…” </em>I feel my heart pound against my chest in excitement, the exact opposite of what I need it to be doing. I take a deep breath and hold it for a moment, then shut my eyes turn my attention inwards, onto my own thoughts.</p><p><em>“How would I even actively attempt to zone out… It always just kind of happened…” </em>I didn’t expect to get stuck so early in the process, I feel the dread from before making a swift return. <em>“What if I can’t? What if I can’t force myself to zone out?” </em> Suddenly I feel really unsure if I even want to attempt this. <em>“What if I can’t? This is supposed to be the easy part, right? Maybe it’s better if I don’t learn how to do this? Sounds dangerous anyway.” </em>I suddenly feel a gentle nudge of encouragement from seemingly nowhere, it must have been Skaftá trying to help me.</p><p><em>“Right, I’m not in this on my own and it’s better if I learn to control myself anyway. Wouldn’t want to accidentally zone out and lose myself completely. That’d be a silly way to go.” </em>I take another deep breath. Now that I’m determined to at least try the task ahead feels just a little less daunting.</p><p><em>“Besides, I used to actively zone out all the time when I was younger, it was my favourite pass time. I’ve got this.” </em>I breathe out and open my eyes again. I see Skaftá has placed her wing over us, dampening some of the sounds from outside, other than that she hasn’t moved.</p><p><em>“Okay, how did I usually zone out when I still did it regularly?” </em>I furrow my eyebrows and try to remember. <em>“Right, I used to stare at something in my surroundings and try to see all the tiny details in it and eventually it would just happen.” </em>I quickly glance around, looking for something that feels like a good candidate. It couldn’t be too far away lest I wouldn’t be able to see enough detail, the closer the better probably.</p><p>In the end I settle for the segment of her tail that’s wrapped around my upper chest, the pattern of her scales should do the job just fine.</p><p>I intently stare at them, my eyes tracing every tiny line and crack between the scales, soon staring at her tail takes up my mind completely.</p><p>As the minutes pass my mind starts to go blank, and eventually I’m just idly staring at some random segment of her tail.</p><p>I notice that my vision has become unfocussed. <em>“This is it right?” </em>I wonder quietly and slowly turn my head, doing my best to keep my eyes from refocussing.</p><p>When I finally turn my head far enough to put her head into my field of view, I notice that inside the blurry outlines I can now see a big formless ball of energy. <em>“Yup this is it.” </em></p><p>I start getting excited, this wasn’t that hard after all. My excitement quickly leads to me losing my focus and when I blink, I accidentally force my eyes to regain their focus. Just like that, I’m brought back into the real world, it doesn’t feel different to me and I couldn’t tell if it weren’t for the absence of the ball of…something that I had been seeing bevor.</p><p><em>“Damn it.” </em>I sigh and quietly grumble some curses under my breath.</p><p><strong><em>“You did well Arya, don’t be frustrated with yourself. You’re already doing really well for your first actual try at doing this.” </em></strong>Skaftá smiles warmly and squeezes me lightly with her tail. <strong><em>“Just keep trying, don’t give up. This isn’t something that you perfect in a day.” </em></strong><br/>I nod slowly and resume staring at her tail once more.</p><p>Again, it takes me a couple minutes to get my mind to go blank. Once it does, I try my best to keep my excitement down.</p><p>I slowly raise my head again to get hers into view. As expect I can see the formless ball that is supposedly her consciousness again.</p><p><em>“Last time I somehow managed to extend some sort of tendril towards her by focusing but also not focusing on her mind…No clue how exactly I did it.” </em>As I’m trying to remember how I did it, all while not thinking too hard out of fear that I might slip out of it, I suddenly notice a small copper brown branch extending from slightly above my eyes.</p><p>I feel my heart stop for a fraction of a second, then excitement rises once more. I still don’t have a clue how I do it but it’s working, somehow. <em>“Careful Arya, don’t want to slip out of it now.” </em><br/>I try my best to redirect my attention and not focus too much.</p><p>The tendril like thing slowly extends outwards, moving up and down and randomly branch every now and then, though the branches never go far. It starts looking similar to a lightning bolt.</p><p>At the same time, I notice that a tendril like thing has started growing out of Skaftás mind as well, it branches a lot less and grows a fair bit more quickly. It seems to be growing towards me, almost as if she were reaching out for me.</p><p>Over the course of the next few minutes the two strands draw closer and closer, though mine kind of goes all over the place but the general trend of drawing closer to her is there.</p><p>Finally, they make contact I can suddenly feel and hear Skaftás thoughts extremely clearly.</p><p>The sudden influx of emotions, sensations and thoughts overwhelms me completely, for a moment my thoughts are completely drowned out by hers. I flinch and try to cover my ears, just as sudden as her mind came flooding into mine, it disappears again. All this happens in less than a second.</p><p>It takes me a moment to realize that I’m alone in my head again. <em>“Holy shit…That was something else.” </em>I take deep breath and try to pick apart what just happened. <em>“Our minds made contact and suddenly I could hear and see everything she thought and felt. No filter, no nothing. As if I were in her mind. Reminds of how it felt when either of them showed me some memory of theirs.” </em></p><p>I glance at Skaftá. <strong><em>“Good job Arya. I hope you’re fine and weren’t too overwhelmed?” </em></strong> I hesitate, then shake my head. <em>“I think I’m fine, I didn’t expect the sudden flood of…stuff.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“That’s fine little one, I should have warned you beforehand. It can be quite overwhelming when you’re not used to it. Over time it’ll become more manageable and you’ll also learn how to control the flow of information coming through the connection.” </em></strong>She blinks slowly and smiles.</p><p><em>“Are you currently filtering what gets through to me too? Because I remember there being a few instances where I made contact with you or you intentionally had me experience the full brunt of what is your consciousness.” </em>I rub my eyes and shake my head. I still feel a little lost disoriented while my brain tries to make sense of the few fragments of thoughts and feelings that stuck around.</p><p><strong><em>“Yes, though we always try to keep those instances short and spaced out to not put too much mental strain on you. With time you’ll hopefully eventually be able to constantly deal with it. I think Dorn might greatly help you with that too, your bond to him is different.” </em></strong>I can feel her sending me some feelings of encouragement.</p><p><em>“Dorn and I have a special connection? What do you mean?” </em>I knew there was something odd about the two of us, but I couldn’t tell what. <strong><em>“As you might have noticed he sort of imprinted onto you. This isn’t entirely coincidental. When we first brought you home the other two little ones didn’t take more than a superficial interest in you, but he somehow could see deeper into your mind.” </em></strong>She pauses briefly. <strong><em>“It seemed as if he could see as deeply as we could even though we didn’t teach him how to. From that moment onwards he was determined to protect you.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“What do you mean by seeing more deeply?” </em>I ask her, I can’t quite make sense of what she’s talking about.</p><p><strong><em>“Let me back up a bit. Before I broke your mind open you can think of it as a crystal ball used by oracles. It’s opaque if you try to look through its centre but if you just look through the outer layers of it you can see through it.” </em></strong> I make some affirmative noises. <em>“But how does that relate to the connection between us?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Well, with your mind in that state we could only see the surface layer of your thoughts, what you were actively thinking about, memories you were actively recalling and such. We couldn’t see older memories, subconscious thoughts or your emotions. They all lie deeper down in the proverbial crystal ball that was your mind then.” </em></strong>I can feel her shift around, trying to get a bit more comfortable. <strong><em>“Obviously once I broke your mind open, we could see and access all these things, imagine it like shattering the crystal ball, now you can look at its insides too. However, before we broke you open, we could see just a little bit deeper if we knew how to, imagine it like shining a flashlight at the crystal ball from the opposite side to see what lies inside.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“So, Dorn happened to already know how to shine this proverbial flashlight through my mind and what he saw led him to wanting to protect me?” </em>I’m not quite sure what to think of that yet but it’s making sense now at least. <strong><em>“That’s about it, he must have instinctively known because we hadn’t shown any of them how to do it yet, that’s a thing we were waiting with because it’s of limited use to us. Also, that’s not the thing that makes the connection between you and Dorn special, it’s just the first oddity about your relationship.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Then what makes our connection special? What you told me so far only makes it look like he’s a smart one and figured something out on his own.” </em>To me this all feels like they’re either keeping something from me or there’s some kind of higher power interfering.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s not that he figured it out, he knew right away what to do. There was no learning process. Think of it how you immediately know how to breathe, you don’t need to learn that, you know from the get-go. What makes your connection to him special is that it appears to be self-regulating, neither of you know how to limit the flow of information yet but somehow neither of you flood the others mind with their thoughts and feelings.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I see, kind of…” </em>It still feels strange to me, but I decide to not push the matter, if there were an explanation it would probably just go over my head anyway.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry about it too much, for now, just keep learning how to control your mind.” </em></strong><br/>I nod slowly and lean back against her side before resuming my mindless staring.</p><p>This time it’s not long before my mind drifts off. Once more I try to connect to Skaftá. This time she waits longer before she too extends a tendril of her own. Just before they are about to make contact, I shut my eyes to brace myself for what is about to come. Surprisingly, even though I should only see darkness I can still see her mind, hovering in nothingness, when I look closer, I can also see a faint version of the branches.</p><p><em>“Curious.” </em>Almost at the same time our minds must have connected as the expected flood of sensations comes flooding in. <em>“Oh boy.” </em>Is the last thought I have before my mind is entirely taken up by trying to process all this info as it comes flying in.</p><p>Actively processing everything she feels, even subconsciously turns out to be nigh impossible for me. For a split second I manage to keep up with it starts to overwhelm me and I have to start ignoring things. But even then, after about a minute she suddenly cuts off the connection, leaving me in an eerie silence.</p><p>I carefully open my eyes again and rub my temples, as my mind calms down once again, I begin to notice a strong headache. <em>“Ugh…” </em>I groan and shake my head.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you alright?” </em></strong>She looks and sounds worried. <strong><em>“Did I push you too far?” </em></strong>Even though the connection between us feels really weak right now I can still feel her concern for me.</p><p>
  <em>“No, no, I’m fine. Just a bit of a headache. I guess I got a little overwhelmed with all this input.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“It’s okay, it might be better if you take a break for now, stretch your legs, take a breather and cool off.” </em></strong>She removes enough of her tail to allow me to stand up.</p><p><em>“Mhmm.” </em>Only now I notice that I’m sweating and breathing heavily, my head feels hot too.</p><p><em>“Didn’t think that thinking could be this heavy of a task.” </em>I slowly get up, pushing myself off Skaftás tail.</p><p>Unexpected dizziness hits me, and I feel myself falling backwards, luckily, she catches me and carefully pushes me back onto my feet. <strong><em>“Careful little one.” </em></strong><br/>Once I get my bearings again, I slowly take a step forward, my head still spins, and it feels like the ground is shaking. I kneel down to prevent myself from falling over again. <em>“Just a minute.” </em><br/>Skaftás tail brushes over my back. <strong><em>“It’s okay, take your time. We have all the time in the world.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly and shut my eyes in hope of slightly alleviating the dizziness.</p><p>Eventually I deem it safe to try walking again. The first step I take still feels really unsafe but once my foot is securely on the ground again, I figure that I’ll be fine.</p><p>Skaftá watches me like a hawk with every step I take.</p><p>Slowly, I stumble to the entrance of the cave, hoping that some sea air will make me feel better.</p><p>As I come around the corner, I notice that the sound of waves crashing is much closer than I remember it. <em>“Must be the tides?”</em> I peek around the corner and indeed, the water is a good thirty feet (10m) closer than it was last time I saw. <em>“Weird I didn’t notice the change earlier, aren’t the tides on a six-hour cycle? Guess I just never paid enough attention.” </em></p><p>I take off my shoes and socks, then roll up the seam of my jeans as far as it’ll let me before carefully stepping into the water.</p><p>I expect the rocks to be slippery as they’re covered in a layer of algae and some truly feel even slipperier than ice. Though there are enough spots where my feet can get a proper grip, allowing me to slowly make my way deeper into the ocean. I don’t get to go too far since I could only roll my jeans up to barely above my knees.</p><p>As the gentle waves starts reaching my knees I stop and take a look around. I’m still a good way away from being out of the gaping hole that is the cave entrance but it’s enough to open up my field of view a lot.</p><p>I let my eyes wander from the left to the right. Beneath the horizon, all I can see is water, water everywhere, not a single speck of land. The sky is largely clear, except for the huge and dark clouds approaching from the south. <em>“Looks like we might be getting a storm or at least a lot of rain later today, I wonder if Dorn and Scáthán will be alright.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I’m a little worried too but the clouds are moving slowly, they’ll have a lot of time to get back.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I wince a little as her voice suddenly sounds through my head. <em>“How did you know about the weather outside? You haven’t been looked outside ever since I woke up.” </em>I turn around to check if she snuck up behind me but no, she’s still inside.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I don’t need to see myself when you’re standing out there, remember the crystal ball analogy? If I want to, I can see through your eyes, hear with your ears or feel with your fingers.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I shake my head. <em>“Right, how could I forget that. Guess I’m still too used to being alone in my head.” </em>I shudder a little at the thought of them seeing everything I ever think. <em>“I hope I don’t ever think of something embarrassing.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry little one, most of the time we don’t actively read your thoughts. To us it’s much like the sound of a room full of people, all talking to one another while you’re not listening to any of them. It turns into something of a background noise until we specifically pay attention to it, then we can hear and see what you think and feel.” </em></strong>Even though I can’t see her I know she’s giving me a reassuring smile. <strong><em>“So, don’t worry, if you think of something embarrassing, we’ll be long gone from your mind. And even if it were to happen while we’re listening, we don’t mind. We don’t have a concept of embarrassing like you do.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Very reassuring.” </em>I think, trying to sound sarcastic. <strong><em>“If it helps you put your mind at ease, once you learn a bit more about how to control your mind, you’ll also be able to tell if we’re listening in or not.” </em></strong>I’m not entirely sure she got my sarcasm, but the tone of her voice makes me hopeful.</p><p><em>“That’s more reassuring, thank you.” </em>I take a deep breath of salty air and stretch. <em>“If I can ever figure out how this mental magic bullshit works.” </em>I add afterwards.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t be too disheartened, I’m sure you can do it Arya.” </em></strong>Her voice does sound rather encouraging. <strong><em>“Just take your time, there’s no need to rush yourself.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod silently and look around once more. The outlook from here is quite nice, something I had previously only been able to imagine. I watch the waves slowly but steadily roll towards me. Something about watching them makes me feel at peace.</p><p>I take a few steps back to sit down on a rock that sticks out of the water. <em>“I wonder where it came from, it must have either gotten washed in here by a storm or…”</em> I look upward at the roof of the cavern, some sixty feet(20m) above me. <em>“Fallen from the ceiling.” </em><br/>I climb onto the rock and sit down, my feet dangling in the water. The surface of the rock looks like it was once spiky and jagged but got mostly smoothed out by the waves.</p><p>I run my fingers over its surface, exploring all the nooks and crannies of it. <em>“It feels too rough to have been washed ashore, rocks this big don’t move quickly and get worn down quickly.” </em></p><p>My eyes trail off towards the horizon and get stuck on the storm that’s brewing in the distance. <em>“Then again, maybe it was both? A storm broke it loose and the gigantic waves moved it here?” </em><br/>I look back down at the rock. <em>“I’ll never know for sure.” </em></p><p>I return to idly staring at the horizon, watching the waves, the clouds as they drift by, studying the other rocks that stick out of the water and trying to figure out how they got here.</p><p>As I sit there, completely lost in my thoughts, the winds begin to grow stronger. The occasional breeze becomes strong enough that I have to lean into it a little.</p><p>At the same time the temperatures begin to drop, I don’t mind it much at first, it’s quite warm here still.</p><p>In the meantime, the storm clouds have turned even darker and are now visibly drifting towards us, beneath them I can see the rain fall as dark columns and the wind grows ever stronger with every passing minute. <em>“Oh my, this is going to be a fun night huh?” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>I imagine the four of us huddled together, lightning lighting up the cave, the thunderclap following seconds after, all the while strong winds blow into the cave. It feels quite threatening but yet I’m not afraid, I know that I’ll be safe with them.</p><p>An exceptionally strong squall of air hits me, it’s so strong I have to lean into it with my full weight to not be pushed over. <em>“Damn. I should get back inside.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You really should little one, I don’t want you to get sick.” </em></strong>Skaftá sounds a little concerned.</p><p><em>“I’ll be quick.” </em>I reply and get off the rock, just in that moment another strong gust of air hits me. Luckily, I catch myself quickly and only land with my butt back on the rock instead of falling into the water. I take a moment to gather my bearing again. <em>“Lucky me, that could have ended a lot worse.” </em>I dip my hand into the water as my feet had grown numb a while ago. <em>“And it would have sucked hard.” </em>The water feels really cold, not quite freezing but getting there.</p><p>I shake my hand to dry it, then quickly get up and carefully make my way back to land.</p><p>The tides made the water retract a little, thus my way to safety is a bit shorter but the storm has clearly affected how far the water retreated.</p><p>The waves make it a fair bit harder to walk safely and, in the end, I take longer getting back.</p><p>Once my feet are on mostly dry ground, I take a deep breath and sigh. <em>“That was sketchier than I thought it would be.” </em>I pick up my shoes and socks, then waddle back into the cave, trying not to step on any sharp rocks that lie on the ground.</p><p>I try to avoid them but still step on quite a few. I had hoped that since my feet feel so numb that I might not feel them but no, every time I step on one, I flinch and grimace while cursing under my breath. <strong><em>“Can I help you little one?” </em></strong>I hear her ask as I’m about to walk around the corner. <em>“If you can make these rocks stop hurting my feet, yes.” </em>I grumble and stop to wipe the pebbles that got stuck under my feet off.</p><p><strong><em>“I’ll do you one better. Hold still.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies quickly and I suddenly feel really light on my feet. <strong><em>“Don’t worry, this is all part of the plan.” </em></strong>She adds when she notices that I’m struggling to keep my balance. <strong><em>“You won’t fall over.” </em></strong></p><p>My arms flail around as my feet get lifted off the ground by a magic force and I start floating towards her.</p><p>I try to move my legs but can’t, they feel like they’re stuck. <em>“What the fuck, help, what is going on? Can you clue me in.” </em>I feel like I want to scream but can’t, my lips are sealed shut.</p><p><strong><em>“Nothing much, some harmless magic.” </em></strong>She winks and by now I’ve almost arrived at her side.</p><p><em>“You could still tell me what you’re trying to do, not just tell me “Hey there’s going to be some magic now.” Damn it.” </em>I am slowly lowered back to the ground and can move my feet again.</p><p>At first it feels like I forgot to stand as more and more weight is put onto my feet again and I feel like my knees are about to give way.</p><p>Before I can fall to my knees however, my legs figure out how standing works again and I manage to push myself fully upright again. <em>“That felt…weird.” </em>Is the first thought that crosses my mind.</p><p>I put my shoes onto the ground and climb over Skaftás neck.</p><p>While I had been out there, she must have grabbed my blanket as it lies quite neatly folded between her head and front paw. <strong><em>“Go wrap yourself up, you’re really cold.” </em></strong>She has her eyes locked onto me and from her tone I can guess that if I don’t do what she wants she’ll be the one to wrap me up. Not that I would mind too much either way. <em>“Wouldn’t want to incur her…wrath though.” </em>I quickly follow her orders, grabbing the blanket, throwing it over me and wrapping what remains around me.</p><p>As I go to sit down, I notice her tail shifting behind me and when I think my butt is about to hit the ground I land on her tail. In a matter of seconds, the rest of her tail envelops me, especially my legs.</p><p>“Thanks.” I whisper quietly and she murmurs approvingly. <strong><em>“Next time I use magic on you I’ll try and clue you into what I’m going to do. Didn’t expect you to be so freaked out.” </em></strong></p><p>“Mhmm.” I narrow my eyes and glare at her, but my mind betrays me, she easily figures out that I’m not serious and playfully growls back with a smile on her lips.</p><p>
  <em>“Anyway, I should get back to figuring out how to control my mind.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Go ahead, I’ll be watching.” </em></strong>With those words she withdraws from my mind once more.</p><p>This time around I try to get faster at zoning out. Instead of trying to reach for her mind as soon as I can see it, I instead bring myself back to the real world and try using something else to zone out. All this in hopes of finding something that works better or faster.</p><p>At the same time, I try and find out how much focus it takes to bring me back into reality.</p><p>The first few tries I keep going with the previous method of intensely staring at something until my mind goes blank, it still takes me around ten odd minutes, but it feels like I’m getting a lot more consistent at it. Instead of sometimes taking much longer I soon rarely take longer than fifteen minutes.</p><p>Eventually I figure that I’ve gotten consistent enough and start trying other things such as trying to not look at anything, shutting my eyes and letting my thoughts drift and shutting my eyes a little to make everything look blurry.</p><p>At first, I can’t succeed with any of these three methods, while not looking at anything feels promising it never quite gets there. With my eyes half shut I notice that my brain feels too busy trying to fill in the details and when I shut my eyes fully my thoughts quickly end up going in circles or going down some rabbit hole of random thoughts.</p><p>By now hours must have passed, for a moment I wonder where Scáthán and Dorn are. <em>“I hope they’re safe…” </em>Images of them fighting an intense storm flash through my mind, memories of Skaftá nearly dying in one mixed in as well.</p><p><em>“I wonder if the storm has arrived yet.” </em>I shut my eyes and listen to the sounds of the wind and sea.</p><p><em>“Sounds about the same meaning the storm hasn’t drawn much closer. Still I hope they return soon.” </em>I contemplate getting up for a moment but decide against it. Scáthán knows what he’s doing, they’ll be alright.</p><p>Seeing how it’s probably getting late, I take a moment to reflect on my efforts. <em>“I did get more consistent at it, not much fast but consistency is good too. Still far from being able to do it on the fly and subconsciously like they do it.” </em>I sigh and shake my head, Skaftá was right this will take a while. <em>“I guess tomorrow I try to get used to the stimulation overload that is her mind. That’ll be mentally grating for sure.” </em>I already kind of dread the experience but if I don’t try, I won’t get better at it. <em>“No matter… What else was there today?” </em>I pause for a moment. <em>“Oh, right I did notice that it took more and more concentration to get out of this trance like state. That’s good right” </em>I mentally direct the question at Skaftá. <em>“Wonder if she could hear me. I can’t feel her right now.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“For now, it’s a good thing, if it goes too far it’ll become a detriment though.” </em></strong>She suddenly appears in my mind and disappears again as soon as she finishes the sentence. <em>“That settles that. Well then, one last attempt before I take a break.” </em></p><p>I pick closing my eyes completely this time, I hadn’t tried it too much since it felt too hard to keep my thoughts from going in circles.</p><p>I shut my eyes and snuggle into the blanket, maybe I was just doing something else wrong? I used to be pretty good at controlling my thoughts so why not now?</p><p>I let my head fall back and take a deep breath. I give myself just a moment to relax before trying to clear my mind of as many thoughts as I can.</p><p>At first, I struggle with keeping new thoughts from popping up but with some time I manage to quiet the turmoil in my head. My head starts to feel heavy and the urge to yawn rises.</p><p>Right as I’m breathing in to yawn, I notice that even with my eyes closed I can see some outline of a shapeless blob. <em>“Good.” </em>I move my head a little to be more comfortable.</p><p>As I keep my mind mostly empty the outline grows clearer and clearer. I wait to see if I can keep this up but as time passes, I notice my attention slipping, not to some particular thought or something. It slips into complete darkness.</p><p>Suddenly I lose my focus for a split second and when I regain it the blob is gone. <em>“Uhm? Huh?”</em> I can’t quite form proper thoughts anymore.</p><p>Then I feel myself drifting off into a different kind of darkness, it’s somehow…different.</p><p>It feels like I’m floating in some empty void, completely devoid of gravity, or anything.</p><p>Even the passage of time feels odd here.</p><p>I can’t tell if time is passing either. But even with all these things that would usually worry me, I don’t feel any fear or anxiety. I feel at rest.</p><p>Some time passes, I couldn’t tell if it’s minutes or hours, until I eventually feel like something is slowly filling the void.</p><p>Not sound but rather sensations. They’re faint and weak but when I try and focus on them, they become a little clearer.</p><p>It feels as though something is moving in the darkness around me, I can even feel the occasional gentle touch.</p><p>I shut my eyes in the hope that I could even better tell what is touching me, but it sadly does nothing.</p><p>However, when I open my eyes again, I find myself back in the real world.</p><p>Dorn lies across my legs, looking up at me with curiosity in his eyes. <strong><em>“Welcome back sister.” </em></strong></p><p>I silently mouth a “What the fuck.” And shake my head.</p><p><em>“What just happened?”</em> I rub my eyes and stretch my arms, it feels like I was asleep.</p><p><strong><em>“You fell asleep and because you were half zoned out and half still here your brain put you into this weird half dream like state.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies. <strong><em>“I wanted to wake you up but since you weren’t afraid or otherwise upset by it, I let you sleep.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly and gently rubs Dorns head. <em>“I fell asleep? Interesting.” </em>I pause briefly. <em>“No matter. I see Dorn got home safely, I guess Scáthán too?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Indeed.” </em></strong>He says and for a second, I see through his eyes, he’s lying a few away from Skaftá, his eyes focused on where I and Dorn lie behind Skaftás wings.</p><p>
  <em>“Very good, I may have been getting worried about you two. Did you manage to avoid the storm?”</em>
</p><p>He quickly nods. <strong><em>“Well mostly.” </em></strong>I raise my eyebrows and tilt my head. <strong><em>“On our way back, we caught a small bit of it, nothing dangerous. Do you want to see?” </em></strong>He looks eager to show me.</p><p>Before I can even finish nodding my vision goes black for a second, then fades back in to sights of Dorn running along the ground. The grass is tall enough to make walking hard for him, he wants to fly but his father told him to stay grounded.</p><p>The grass around him waves left and right, like a green stormy ocean, the wind tugging on his wings. Even though he’s running at full speed he can barely keep up with Scáthán who thanks to his size has less problems walking through the grass but instead has to fight the wind a lot more.</p><p>Fortunately, home isn’t far anymore, he can already smell the ocean and could probably hear it too if the wind weren’t so overpoweringly loud in his ears.</p><p>He briefly looks up at the sky, in front of him everything is covered in dark blue clouds, laden with rain and electricity. Behind him the sky still looks clear, but the storm is rapidly moving forward, covering more and more of it.</p><p>A sudden breeze catches in his wings forces them away from his side. Dorn is suddenly lifted into the air and almost loses control. Inches away from crashing to the ground he fully spreads his wings and lets the wind carry him for a few feet (couple meters) until the wind dies down enough to let him quickly tuck his wings to his side and drop to the ground.</p><p>As soon as his paws touch the ground he continues running, now keeping his wings pressed to his side more than before.</p><p>Scáthán, noticing that Dorn is getting tired stops and lies down, offering him some much-needed shelter from the winds.</p><p>He hides behind his fathers’ front paw, his wings and sides hurt from how hard he’s had to press them to his body to not have the wind pick him up and carry him away.</p><p><strong><em>“How much further?” </em></strong>He asks Scáthán, looking up at him.</p><p>Scáthán looks around and smells the air, then turns his head towards Dorn again. <strong><em>“Half a mile(~800m), give or take. We continue when you’re ready.” </em></strong></p><p>A few minutes later Dorn feels like he has recovered enough and prepares himself for the final sprint. <strong><em>“Ready?” </em></strong>Scáthán asks.</p><p>Dorn grunts quietly and walks out from behind his fathers’ paw. The winds had grown even stronger and, in the distance, a dark curtain of rain falls, it’ll be a matter of minutes before it reaches them.</p><p>While the rain is less of a problem it’ll also bring with it lightning and his father is easily the tallest thing around and cowering down will only get him so far. Thus, they’ll need to hurry.</p><p><strong><em>“I’ll carry you.” </em></strong>Scáthán says and without waiting for Dorn to answer, picks him up and places him on his back, just behind his neck.</p><p>Dorn immediately lies down as flat as he can, trying to find anything to hold onto with his claws.</p><p>Scáthán gets up starts continues the walk back. He quickly picks up speed as his walk turns into run and his run into a sprint. His head and neck form a straight line with his back and his tail serves as a means to keep him balanced.</p><p>He covers the remaining distance in around a minute, as he approaches the ocean, the cliff comes into view. A sharp drop, two hundred or so feet deep.</p><p>He leaps off the edge with enough force to send him far beyond the cliff even without using his wings. He plummets towards the water, hits the side of a wave and dives several dozen feet (~12m).</p><p>Somehow, through all of this Dorn manages to cling to his father, who as soon as he comes to a stop turns around and swims towards the cliff again.</p><p>Scáthán doesn’t stick his head out of the water until he has to, soon after Dorn is lifted out of the water as well. He stands up on his father’s back and shakes some of the water off his head.</p><p>The caves entrance lies right in front of them. He looks down Scátháns side to see if he could jump off and swim the last bit but this close to the cliff the waves are either collapsing or about to, making the waters incredibly turbulent.</p><p>Scáthán quickly heads into the cave, the wind fast winds create a loud howling noise and the water has been pushed almost up to the first turn.</p><p>Dorn waits until only the taller waves can reach him, then hops off and glides to the ground. Even this far into the cavern, the wind manages to catch him off guard twice, nearly knocking him out of the air.</p><p>He shakes off the water and as his vision goes blurry from all the quick head movements, I notice reality slowly fading back into view.</p><p><em>“That felt pretty scary at times.” </em>I look down at him and gently rub his head. <em>“But I’m pretty sure Scáthán had it under control. Besides, you didn’t feel scared nor were you overly exhausted.” </em>Dorn smiles widely and nods. <strong><em>“I have to admit the part where dad jumped off the cliff felt very scary, if a strong gust would have caught him at the wrong time that could have ended badly. I think.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“But I’m sure that even if the wind threw him way off course, he would have found a way to recover. Though the extra time in the air would have made the lightning much scarier.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“The lightning wasn’t that worrisome yet, it was still a fair bit away. Also, while the winds near the top of the cliff are more turbulent it also mostly prevents really strong gusts from forming since they’re usually dispersed by the turbulence.” </em></strong>Scáthán adds. <strong><em>“Still you didn’t need to put yourself at such risk, if you would have taken only a little longer you would have gotten right into the worst of the storm.” </em></strong>Skaftá interjects, she doesn’t sound very happy but also resigned, as if she’s given up on trying to stop him from doing this kind of thing.</p><p><strong><em>“While the grownups argue, why don’t you get yourself some food Arya? You must be really hungry.” </em></strong>Dorn asks innocently.</p><p><em>“Wha-? How do you know? I don’t even feel hungry. You can’t have read that from my mind. Unless, is there something in my subconscious?”</em> I’m taken aback by his question, sure it makes sense for me to be hungry, I haven’t eaten all day. <strong><em>“Didn’t need to read your mind for that, just had to listen closely.” </em></strong>He looks incredibly smug and self-satisfied.</p><p>I furrow my eyebrows and slowly shake my head. <em>“The hell do you mean?” </em>Right in that moment I feel some air move in my gut and a gurgle emanates from my innards. <strong><em>“That.” </em></strong>Is all that Dorn has to add.</p><p>I chuckle and sigh. <em>“Right. I should have known. I guess my stomach growled while I was asleep?” </em><br/>Dorn nods and climbs out of my lap. <strong><em>“Let’s go.” </em></strong></p><p>As soon as he’s off me I feel Skaftás tail uncurl and just before undoing the last bit of it around my hip she helps me get onto my feet before fully letting go.</p><p>I give her a quick nod of appreciation and walk out from under her wing.</p><p>Almost immediately I notice that it has grown much chillier out here, the wind blows strong enough to create a swooshing sound in my ears and make my clothes flutter a little. I shudder and rub my upper arms. <em>“Let’s hurry.” </em>I say to myself and quickly throw together a pile of wood for a fire, then place the slab of stone on top.</p><p>Since Skaftá is the closest to me she lifts her head slightly and blows a column of fire at the wood. It’s quickly lit ablaze, though the wind makes the flames struggle a little at times and lets ash fly everywhere.</p><p>After a few moments later I place the leftover fish from yesterday on the rock.</p><p>I sit down next to the fire, trying to keep myself warm while not being too close to have hot ash blown at me. Dorn sit down opposite of me and spreads his wings around the fire, keeping some of the wind away. “Thank you.” I mutter quietly as I scoot closer to the fire now that there’s less ash getting blown around.</p><p>Fortunately, reheating food is much quicker than cooking it and I get to dig my teeth into some delicious fish not much later.</p><p>As I’m chowing down, I notice that Dorns wing are beginning to shake. I pause for a moment and tilt my head. <em>“What wrong brother?” </em>I try to see what he’s feeling but it appears that he’s intentionally keeping whatever he’s feeling away from me. <em>“Why are you hiding whatever it is from me? You really don’t need to.” </em>At first, he doesn’t react, then he says: <strong><em>“It’s nothing sister.” </em></strong>Though he clearly sounds pained, I can’t make out what’s causing him the pain. <em>“Are your wings tired? You were out flying for hours today and now you’re sheltering me from the storm. Please don’t push yourself for my sake.” </em>He keeps his wings spread for a few seconds longer, then drops them and haphazardly pulls them close to his body, probably too weak to properly tuck them away.</p><p><strong><em>“Sorry sister.” </em></strong>He says as a gust of wind sends a bunch of ash swirling around me and I turn away to protect my face. Scáthán suddenly gets up, only to lie back down behind Dorn. The sheer bulk of his body now blocks the wind.</p><p><strong><em>“Thanks dad.” </em></strong>Dorn sounds meek and sad. <strong><em>“Don’t be too upset Dorn, as she said, you’ve already pushed yourself far today, no need to over exert yourself.” </em></strong> Scáthán gently nudges him with the tip of his snout.</p><p>I move around the fire to sit beside my brother as well, then slowly rub his head and upper neck.</p><p>He puts one of his wings around my lower back, using the little claw, what would probably be his thumb, to hold onto me by hooking it into my clothes.</p><p><em>“Thank you for always keeping me safe and comfortable.” </em>I split the food I have left in half and offer one halve to him. He carefully plucks it from my hand and then quickly licks the palm of my hand. <strong><em>“Thank you.” </em></strong>He says, while he sounds genuinely grateful there’s still that little bit of smugness on his face. <em>“No…Problem.” </em>I say with a deliberate pause.</p><p>I return to attention to the rest of my meal and quickly get back to eating after wiping my hand on my thigh.</p><p>We all sit in silence, only the howling of the wind, the waves crashing not too far away and the crackling of the fire filling the cave. I shudder, it’s getting quite cold in here.</p><p>Once I’m done eating, I lean onto Dorn and wrap my arms around his neck while resting my head on his shoulder.</p><p>He moves his wing a little to cover more of my back. I notice how warm his wing feels on the part of my body that wasn’t covered before and reach around to place the back of my hand on my shoulder blade. His body heat warms me up a little, I snuggle up a little closer to him. Funnily enough I’ve stopped shuddering by now, my feet still hurt a little from the cold but nothing I can’t deal with. The only evidence of the cold that I have are the permanent goose bumps on my arms and lower legs.</p><p>I begin to wonder why I stopped feeling so cold, I don’t feel warm but neither do I feel like I’m freezing. <em>“Weird.” </em>I reach around to my back and press the back of my hand against it.</p><p>It’s cold as ice, probably because my back had been turned away from the fire for quite a while. <em>“Oh…” </em>I pull my hand back hold it against my cheek, expecting it to feel really cold but no. It doesn’t feel any different in temperature. <em>“Even my face is cold. I really hope it doesn’t get much colder, otherwise I’ll need to figure something out to keep me warm.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry, this storm is bringing down temperatures quite a bit. That said, in a while it might get a little bit colder than this.” </em></strong>Skaftá lifts her head to look over Scáthán. <strong><em>“That said, I don’t know how long this storm will stick around for.” </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>“Also rest assured that no matter what, we will find a way to keep you warm.” </em></strong>Scáthán adds and even without looking at him I know that he’s up to no good.</p><p><em>“Whatever it is that you’re thinking about, forget it. I know you’re up to no good when you say things like that.” </em>I slowly turn my head and glare at him, he’s thoroughly unimpressed by my attempts to intimidate him.</p><p>
  
</p><p>He grins and winks at me <strong><em>“What are you going to do about it?” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Me? Not much, but I think someone else will have strong objections too.”</em><br/>Skaftá growls quietly, yet something about her mind feels different. Usually when she reprimands him like this, I can feel some minor annoyance from her. <em>“Huh? Is she hiding her annoyance from me?” </em>I shrug and move a little closer to the fire.</p><p><strong><em>“You two should come and warm yourself up.” </em></strong>Skaftá pokes her head out from under her wing and looks at us.</p><p>I slowly turn my head to look over at Dorn, he does the same. We stare at one another for a moment, then I nod, he quickly replies with a nod himself. We get up in unison and crawl under her wing.</p><p>My blanket still lies where I left it when I went to have dinner. I wrap myself in it as well as I can and as soon as I consider the job done, I carefully lie down, trying to keep the blanket in place.</p><p>While I’m lying down, I feel Skaftá loosely wrap her tail around me. She moves the tip of her tail under my head to keep it off the ground. Once I’m flat on the ground I can feel her tail tightening around me until it feels much like a comforting embrace.</p><p>Dorn hops on top of me and lies down with his legs hanging down my side and his head resting on my shoulder. Skaftá takes a moment longer until she rests her head next to me and gently pushes me into her side.</p><p>I manage to wiggle free one of my arms and put it around Dorns neck, resting my hand on top of it and gently stroking him.</p><p>With Dorn lying on top of me and Skaftá covering both of my sides, I soon start a comforting warmth creep through the blanket.</p><p>Dorn yawns and licks his teeth, then sleepily blinks at me. His mind feels just about ready to black out.</p><p>I smile warmly and pat his head. <em>“I feel you, I’m about to fall into a coma too.” </em></p><p>He shuts his eyes and smiles too. I can feel that he wants to answer but can’t muster up the energy to speak. He yawns once more and wiggles around a little, a content smile plastered on his face.</p><p>I notice that whenever he yawns, I find myself involuntarily staring into his mouth, something about how he’s so young yet his jaws already look like they could tear apart everything on this planet.</p><p><strong><em>“Is there something wrong sister?”</em></strong> His voice snaps me out of my stupor. I must have been intently staring at him. <em>“Oh, it’s nothing.” </em>I force a smile and pet his head some more. <em>“I just spaced out.” </em></p><p>He smiles back. <strong><em>“Okay, how about we go sleep, I’m really tired.” </em></strong>He shuts his eyes for a moment nuzzles his head into the blanket.</p><p>I nod slowly and try to suppress the need to yawn that suddenly overcomes me. <em>“Good plan.” </em><br/>After wiggling around a little I close my eyes and wait for my mind to drift off.</p><p>As I lie waiting, I feel Dorn move his head out from under my hand, then he carefully moves it under his to keep it warm, then he too lies down to sleep.</p><p>Whilst my body slowly warms up, I drift off several times only to be woken up by the wind howling like a pack of wolves.</p><p>With a sigh of annoyance, I try to place my head such that my ears are sort of covered, but I can’t find a position that covers both ears, much less one that is comfortable enough to sleep in.</p><p>Dorn doesn’t seem to be bothered by the noise, his mind feels like it’s already way gone into the land of dreams.</p><p>Luckily, Skaftá takes note of my struggles and I feel her tail shift and wrap around my head, covering both my ears.</p><p>It feels a bit like she put a headband on me, but I don’t mind. If this is what it takes, I’ll gladly accept it.</p><p>I can still hear the wind and waves outside, but their noise is much more muted now, enough to finally let me drift off as well.</p><p>It takes a while before I find myself in a dream world together with my brother.</p><p>Much to my surprise we don’t find ourselves out in space, looking at Jupiter or the asteroid belt.</p><p>Instead I find myself lying on his back, staring at a starry sky from atop a cliff that looks similar to the one we’re currently living in.</p><p>The air is chilly but not quite cold yet, some small specks of clouds drift by as the half crescent moon illuminates the night.</p><p>While lying on my back still I feel around my brothers scales to get a sense of how big he currently is, he certainly isn’t as gigantic as he was when we flew around the planets. It feels like he’s about the size of our parents instead.</p><p><strong><em>“Beautiful isn’t it.” </em></strong>He says, I can feel that he’s staring at the sky.</p><p>I too turn my attention towards the night sky. While I had seen it like this before when I was running around the forest and a bit later when I was…adopted but before he hatched, I still find myself in awe. The fact that what I can see a tiniest fraction of what is actually out there and that many of these seemingly tiny specs are actually entire galaxies, vaster than one can imagine, with even vaster distances between them boggles my mind.</p><p>
  <em>“How can such gigantic things arise from things so tiny that they are nigh impossible to observe?” </em>
</p><p>I try to wrap my head around how the entire universe and all its contents can be broken down into teensy subatomic particles. How objects so huge that they are hardly measurable in any meaningful unit can be formed from quarks so small there’s no useful way of describing their size either.</p><p>But all I achieve is giving me a minor headache.</p><p>I shake my head and look at the stars once more, not concerning myself with the reality of what I’m looking at and instead just enjoying the view.</p><p><strong><em>“Soon we’ll fly among the stars once more, even if it’s just in our dreams.” </em></strong>He falls silent for a moment. <strong><em>“Do you ever wonder what’s actually out there? You’ve read lots about what past humans saw through their fancy devices, but no one ever actually laid an eye on the stars and their planets, much less anything more dangerous.” </em></strong></p><p>I pause for a moment to think. <em>“I’d argue that by proxy we have seen a lot of objects, sure we weren’t physically there to lay our eyes upon them but at these distances that’s entirely unreasonable to do, even if you travel at the speed of light. Sure, the colours we gave them may be off but the shape and what they do to their surroundings should be very close to what we observed. What would be more interesting however, is what lies on the things we didn’t see yet, the trillions upon trillions of exoplanets and whatever else has so far evaded our view.” </em></p><p>Dorn replies almost instantly. <strong><em>“If you’re okay with having seen a mathematic representation of whatever you’re looking at I would agree too. With some of these things it’s not reasonable to get close enough to have a look either or it’s outright impossible. Black holes come to mind, how would you look at them? However, I do find myself wondering, what would it be like to physically go to these places. Though I am aware that I would be liquefied or worse before I even got close.” </em></strong>He briefly pauses. <strong><em>“I find exoplanets strange, many of them must be dead rocks floating through space for all eternity, or gigantic balls of gas doing the same. The only thing that separates them from earth is the fact that this space rock is in the right place at the right time with the right kind of primordial soup on it to give birth to an entire ecosystem. Yet while those other planets are basically the same as ours, they feel so strange and alien to me.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly. <em>“We’re all just chemical goo on a space rock barrelling through the universe, we appeared in an instant and will probably be gone in the blink of an eye, if even that.”</em></p><p>We both fall silent for a while. <em>“Come to think of it, your kind being here makes this planet even crazier. Dragons weren’t always here, you arrived on an asteroid or similar. This means, out there must have been another planet, like earth, capable of producing life. And produce life it did, that is until it was destroyed, how will probably remain a secret forever. Somehow, a few eggs survived the literal apocalypse and were now stuck on this pebble, a fragment of their home, unsure of their fate. The only thing that was certain was that they’d be spending an eternity in this state.”</em></p><p>I take a moment to sort my thoughts and take a breath. <em>“Then, after presumably billions of years, this chunk of a former planet flew into our solar system in just the right way to hit Earth. Not Jupiter or some other planet, no earth specifically, in a time frame where it was inhabitable too. Then Earth also coincidentally had conditions close enough to your home planet that your kind could actually live on here. As if intelligent life existing on here wasn’t enough of a miracle already.”</em></p><p>I can feel Dorn intently listening to me. <strong><em>“I hadn’t realized just how ludicrous our existence on this world is. My parents did mention that we weren’t from here, but only in passing. I hadn’t considered the logistics of it all yet.” </em></strong>He pauses, his mind busy trying to process what I told him. <strong><em>“And throughout our trip through space these eggs must have lived off something. Sure,        they can take a lot of abuse but whatever a living being can dish out is nothing compared to a planet getting destroyed or the things that deep space has to offer. How did they not freeze to death out there with nothing to grant them warmth? How did they not starve, their eggs only carry so much nutrients? I’ll have to ask Skaftá and Scáthán tomorrow.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod silently, my mind too, busy trying to count all the impossibilities that had to be surmounted for him to exist in the same place and time as me. No matter how unlikely our relationship may be, I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.</p><p>Tears of happiness well up in my eyes, I was so close to giving up, so close to ending it all. I had lost all hope in things ever getting better, I truly felt hopeless and lost. I felt that fate was just playing a cruel game with me, like some torturer keeping his victim on the verge of death.</p><p>Yet if I hadn’t somehow prevailed, I wouldn’t be here.</p><p>I turn around and try to hug him, in reality it feels like I spread my arms and that’s it, but I can tell that he can feel what I’m going for.</p><p>I bury my face in his scales, they feel hard but soft at the same time. A tear of joy rolls out of my eyes and down the back of my nose onto his scaly armour. He gently nudges me with his snout. <strong><em>“I wouldn’t want to have it any other way either. I’m incredibly grateful that you’re here with me too.” </em></strong>I sniffle and let my hands glide over his scales. I’ll make sure to savour every moment with him. “Please never go away.” I say softly, my voice quivering.</p><p><strong><em>“I won’t, ever.” </em></strong>He says just as softly as he rests his head on my back. This is probably the closest we can get to a hug right now.</p><p>We stay like this for a while but eventually we both return our attention to the sky.</p><p>Both of us let our gaze wander along the stars, our minds adrift, wandering wherever they please.</p><p>My eyes glance past a pair of stars that at first look rather ordinary, just two more specks on the sky on the edge of a larger group but then I notice their colour.</p><p>Almost all other stars are white, only a few have an orange hue to them and Mars shines orange a few of the other planets would also be off colour but they aren’t visible right now.</p><p>And then there are these two, they clearly have a blueish hue to them, they are too small to be sure what colour they actually are.</p><p>I squint, not willing to believe that they aren’t white but no, they are.</p><p>I rub my eyes and look again, now they’ve disappeared. <em>“Wait, why do I worry about disappearing off colour stars again? This is a dream after all.” </em>I furrow my eyebrows. <em>“It’s odd still, so far this dream has been very consistent with reality.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I saw them too sister, they did look odd, didn’t they? I think I even saw them disappear momentarily before.” </em></strong>My brother says as he stares at the same spot. <strong><em>“But they don’t appear to be coming back.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“How very strange.” </em>I think to myself, then resume stargazing.</p><p>A lot of time passes during which we silently enjoy each other’s presence. Eventually however, the time comes to wake up again, the sun peeks over the horizon of our dream world. The stars begin to fade, and the dream starts to feel less real.</p><p>I look at my brother once more, knowing that for just a moment I’ll be alone as I wake up.</p><p>But soon we’ll be reunited in our corporeal forms.</p><p>I pet him once more and shut my eyes, when I open them again, I find myself staring at Skaftás head.</p><p>I try to move but the grip of her tail is too strong to allow for more than a slight wiggle.</p><p><em>“At least my arm is still free.” </em> I try to move it, but it only obeys sluggishly, my entire arm feels numb and cold. <em>“Bad idea.” </em>Dorn notices my attempt at movement and helps me get my arm moving.</p><p>As soon as it’s off the side of the blanket roll that Skaftá put me into it falls freely towards the ground. It hits the ground rather hard, but it barely registers as more than a bump.</p><p><em>“Is this the combination of having my arm up the entire night and it being cold?”</em> Slowly, I can feel my arm regain some feeling. It tingles all over, both from blood returning to the veins and cold slowly dissipating.</p><p>With a lot of effort, I manage to heave the arm up and sort of into the blanket.</p><p>
  <em>“Better not do that again.” </em>
</p><p>The tingling grows a lot worse as my arm warms up, I try to shake it to force more blood into my forearm, but it barely helps. <strong><em>“Can I help you sis?” </em></strong>Dorn has crawled forward a bit, so his head is on the edge of the blanket. He looks at me with a bit of worry and confusion.</p><p>
  <em>“Don’t think so, I’ll just have to wait for my arm to calm down.” </em>
</p><p>He frowns and looks down. <strong><em>“Really? Nothing I can do.” </em></strong>He looks over at my arm.</p><p><em>“Don’t worry it’s not too bad, it’s already feeling better.” </em>That’s not entirely the truth but my arm doesn’t feel completely numb anymore so it’s not completely fucked. The tingling however is really starting to get on my nerves.</p><p>I try to get out from the blanket to stretch my legs, as my body is starting to complain rather harshly too. My entire back aches and my knees feel a little painful from being stuck in the same position for the entire night. <em>“Is she still asleep? Certainly, feels like it.” </em>I strain against the grip of her tail, but it doesn’t budge.</p><p>I try to turn my head but since she still has her tail around it that turns out to be nigh impossible too.</p><p>Dorn raises his head a little and pokes her with one of his paws. <strong><em>“Mom’s still fast asleep indeed.” </em></strong></p><p>I grumble quietly and try to stretch as best as I can while being so restrained. <em>“Here’s hoping that she wakes up soon, why would she be still asleep though? Usually both of them are up way before me.”</em></p><p>Dorn puts his head back down and looks at me. <strong><em>“I don’t know either, but she’ll be up soon. Should I try and wake her?” </em></strong> </p><p><em>“Please do, at this rate it feels like my back might just kill me.” </em>Dorn stands up on top of me and hops off, then gets up to Skaftás head and pushes against it with his front paws.</p><p>At first it looks like nothing is happening but then she suddenly begins to stir and her eyes pop open.</p><p>I can suddenly feel her presence in my head again, I hadn’t noticed that she was gone before.</p><p>She sluggishly lifts her head and looks around, when her eyes fall onto me, I feel her presence in my head grow. <strong><em>“Oh, sorry. Let me get you out of that.” </em></strong>She speaks with a tired voice.</p><p>Quickly, her tail unravels, and I am finally free to move again. I don’t waste a second and jump up, then properly stretch myself and finish by bending over till my fingers touch the ground.</p><p>I feel every single vertebra in my back pop and the joints in my arms and legs make an audible cracking sound. <em>“Damn, must have been really bad. Or maybe I’m just getting old.” </em></p><p>I shake my legs and peek out from under her wing, the cave is empty besides us and I can hear the waves crashing rather closely. Either it’s high tide again or the weather is still shit. <em>“Hope it’s the former since it looks like Scáthán is out and about hunting again.” </em>A breeze blows into the cave, the cold air making me shudder and hide under Skaftás wing again.</p><p><em>“Looks like the storm isn’t completely gone yet.” </em>I sit down and wrap myself in the still rather warm blanket again. <strong><em>“It sure isn’t.” </em></strong>Skaftá answers and yawns widely.</p><p>She stretches out her front legs, then drags her claws over the rocks, leaving white lines all over the ground. <strong><em>“No matter, I’ll have to get going and gather some food for the four of us.” </em></strong>She slowly gets up, clearly still drowsy.</p><p>I almost fall over backwards as the support for my back suddenly disappears, though with much flailing of my arms I manage the catch my balance. Dorn barely moves throughout all this, evidently not keen on having to get up.</p><p>Skaftá trots towards the caves exit, leaving the two of us sitting in the middle of the cavern. With her gone the windchill soon leaves me shivering, pulling the blanket up to my chin and turning myself such that I’m facing the wind makes it a bit more bearable. Dorn looks up at me with a wondering look in his eyes. <strong><em>“Arya? Why are you sitting here, dad’s just a few feet away?” </em></strong></p><p>I blink a couple times and star at the far-off wall with empty eyes. <em>“Right…”</em> I get up, making sure to keep the blanket wrapped around me, then make my way over to him, Dorn sticking by my side.</p><p>As we’re halfway there the wind grows stronger and I can feel it push against the blanket, trying to pull it off me. <em>“Oh my, if the wind in here is that bad, then how bad is it outside?” </em>My thoughts immediately jump to Skaftá having to fly in these conditions. <em>“Is she going to be fine? I guess Dorn and dad flew in worse conditions yesterday. Though they also got lucky and stuck close to the ground.” </em>Concern spreads throughout my gut and I worriedly look towards the ocean.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry little one, I’ll be fine. The wind is bad, you’re right. But when I can’t hunt in the air, I can always hunt under water.” </em></strong>Suddenly a faint vision of her standing in the water, waves crashing against the scales covering her chest. She pauses for a brief moment longer then leaps forward and disappears into the water. <em>“How did I not realize? It’s not like I haven’t watched them do it before… But still, good to know that she’ll be fine.”</em></p><p>The vision fades just in time for me to stop and not trip over his neck. <strong><em>“Watch out little one.” </em></strong>He lifts his head and with a smile looks down at me.</p><p><em>“Oops.”</em> I think to myself and quickly take a step aside to sit down just behind his front paw.</p><p>While I’m draping the blanket around me Dorn is quick to weave himself into it as well and once, we settle down Scáthán rests his head right in front of us.</p><p>With us being protected from the wind again everything feels much more comfortable. A warm smile spreads across my face and I snuggle into the crevice between Scátháns side and his front leg.</p><p>I shut my eyes for a while and enjoy the sounds of the storm outside while I’m sitting here warm and comfy. The occasional howling of the wind outside reminds of me the comfy days I had in the library. How I would run through the rain and wind to seek shelter in there, then sit beside one of the large windows while reading and listening to sounds of the rain and wind.</p><p>With nothing important to do for today I figure there won’t be any harm in spending some time dwelling on one of the few happy memories from back then. I let myself become fully immersed in the memory and soon it almost feels like I’m sitting right there.</p><p>As I idly stare out the window, watching the raindrops coalesce on the glass I notice that something feels off about this memory, as if I was being watched. I don’t remember anyone else being around, well except the librarian who was sitting behind his desk. All others had gone home due to the weather.</p><p>I open my eyes and take a look around, thinking that either Dorn or Scáthán could be watching me but no, Dorn is lying wrapped around me, his head on my thighs, eyes half closed staring into the air. Scáthán has his eyes glancing deeper into the cave too.</p><p>I furrow my eyebrows and scratch my chin. <em>“Weird, I could swear I felt someone staring at me.” </em>I let my eyes wander around, maybe Skaftá had come back early? No, no signs of her either, I couldn’t even feel her mind anymore. With a shrug I shut my eyes again and let myself drift off, chalking the whole thing up to me being paranoid.</p><p>Not much later I’m back in that same barely comfortable enough to be bearable chair, staring out the window. The storm grows worse by the minute, while the trees were only gently rocking back and forth in the winds, I can now watch them lean over with branches snapping off and tumbling through the air every now and then.</p><p>The rain doesn’t run straight down the window anymore either, flowing at something close to a thirty-degree angle.</p><p>
  <em>“Oh, my I remember now, this one got hilariously bad…Sadly it stopped right as I had to go home.” </em>
</p><p>I glance around the deserted library, it almost feels a little scary in here. The building occasionally groans and creaks as a gust of wind hits it, otherwise the rows upon rows of shelves lie completely silent. The rustling of paper breaks through the silence as the librarian shuffles around a stack of it, I almost jump out of the chair at the sound of it.</p><p>I shake my head and smile. <em>“Silly me, there’s nothing haunted or supernatural about this place. The worst that could happen is this building collapsing. Which I’m pretty sure it won’t.” </em>I turn my sight to the book I had picked out, something about entry level organic chemistry, the current page talks about Alkanes, their naming, their structure and molecular formula. Earlier today we had started talking about these things in class, we hadn’t gotten far yet, but it certainly looked exciting.</p><p>I mindlessly flip through the pages, skimming them as I go. There’s stuff about Alkenes, Alkynes, substituted Alkanes, Cyclic ones and much more. <em>“What a time this was, I had never been this excited about any subject in school and it turned out to be as exciting as I thought it would be.” </em></p><p>As I recall these weeks, I turn my head to stare outside once more, the trees now look like they’re about to topple over and the rain is approaching a forty-five-degree angle. The droplets even appear to be “falling” parallel to the ground when a gust blows by.</p><p>The streets that I can see from here are now completely empty as well, while there were a few people running home or wherever before, they now vanished too. Probably for the best, it’s looking like walking might be rather challenging now.</p><p>Suddenly I feel something tug on my jeans, something sharp and pointy pokes through them. I gasp and spin around to see a small version of my brother standing beside the chair, one paw on my thigh with his claws digging into the fabric.</p><p><strong><em>“Hello sister.” </em></strong>He smiles and takes his paw off me. I take a moment to reply as I try to calm myself.</p><p><em>“What the fuck, was that necessary?” </em>I ask him flabbergasted.</p><p>He looks down at the floor and I can feel that he’s sorry, he didn’t mean to spook me like that.</p><p>I carefully place my hand on the back of his head and gently rub it. <em>“It’s okay, don’t worry. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh, I was still quite agitated.” </em>He slowly raises his head, there’s still some remorse in his eyes. <strong><em>“Sorry sis, I didn’t mean to.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” </em>I crack a smile. <em>“Though I do wonder why you’re here, and how.” </em></p><p>He tilts his head a little in response. <strong><em>“What do you mean? This works almost the same as a dream. As to why, I noticed you were reliving some of your happy memories and got curious.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly. <em>“I see, didn’t think daydreaming and actual dreams would behave this similarly.”</em></p><p>I place the book on the windowsill and pat my thighs. <em>“Then why don’t we watch the storm together?” </em>Without wasting a second Dorn places his front paws on my thighs and pushes himself up. Since he’s closer to a very big dog in size right now than his actual size his neck winds up being the perfect length for him to place his head on top of mine. <em>“This is not how I imagined this but fine.” </em>I slowly turn my head and resume watching the rain fall and the trees waver.</p><p>The storm has finally reached it’s worst it seems, the winds aren’t growing stronger anymore, though that doesn’t keep them from breaking big branches off the trees and sending all kinds of things flying.</p><p>As the rain keeps pouring the sewers soon start filling in some places and the water begins to pool above ground, creating miniature lakes or turning roads into rivers.</p><p><strong><em>“And you walked home through this?” </em></strong>Dorn asks.</p><p>I try to shake my head but then realize that he still has his lying on it. <em>“Nope, until then it’ll have mostly died down.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I see, I wouldn’t have wanted to be outside during such a storm. It’s very cool that humans built these miniature caves everywhere. They probably come in handy very often. I hope I get to explore some of them at some point.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I’m not sure where our parents took us too but I’m pretty sure we can find some ruins of abandoned buildings somewhere. Maybe we could eventually go look for some, I imagine that could be fun.” </em>I try to figure out where we could be based on how long we flew and the looks of our surroundings but come up empty handed. These cliffs could be just about everywhere and since we spent some sixteen hours in the air, we must be incredibly far from where we started. On a whole new continent even, further from home than I had ever been but at this point my human home may as well not exist anymore. My home is with them.</p><p><strong><em>“That does sound like something we should do, but I wonder if I could even fit inside them for long. These things look big to you but comparing them to mom or dad they appear small. Are there any that could house an adult dragon?” </em></strong>He has turned his head away from the window and is looking at me, eagerly awaiting an answer. <em>“Most can’t, the entryways to them are usually made for humans not for twenty-foot-tall dragons.” </em>I chuckle lightly. <em>“But I’m pretty sure some storage halls or whatever have gates big enough to accommodate a fully-grown dragon.</em></p><p>I too turn my head away from the window and look at him, the way his eyes are fixated on me with an incredibly inquisitive look in his eyes reminds me of how I would sometimes look at the teacher when a subject got particularly interesting.</p><p>He tilts his head a little. <strong><em>“I saw some of those in your memories, I wonder if we could use those as shelter too, instead of caves. But if I want to see the insides of a house like you used to live then we should hurry right? In a years’ time I’ll be too large to fit into one.”</em></strong> His expression changes slightly, now including concern as well.</p><p><em>“If you keep growing at this rate it’ll become a problem very soon indeed. But I’m sure we’ll find a way around it. You can see through my eyes if you want after all and from what our parents have done with me so far it also seems like they can control my body if they want to. Maybe when the time comes, I’ll not mind surrendering control of my body to you, though for now I would rather not…” </em>I shudder as memories of my past abuse flash past my inner eye.</p><p>With a quick shake of my head I clear my thoughts. <em>“We’ll find a way when the time comes, no matter how tall you are by then.” </em>I smile warmly and let my hand glide down his neck.</p><p>He nods slowly. <strong><em>“We’ll get to it eventually, it’s not like anyone is rushing us. We have all the time in the world.” </em></strong>He slowly turns his head to look outside again but then gets stuck on the book. He pauses briefly, presumably to read the title of it. <strong><em>“Organic chemistry?” </em></strong>His eyes stay glued to the book. <strong><em>“That’s one of your favourite subjects isn’t it? About all those compounds containing Carbon and Hydrogen that in the end made life possible?” </em></strong>I answer him by simply nodding.</p><p>Dorn tries to reach for the book with one paw but with his claws he probably won’t be able to do much with it. <em>“Let me help you.” </em>I quickly nab the book off the windowsill and flip it open somewhere in the middle. Dorn rests his head on my shoulder and starts reading, I can sense him processing all the words, looking back at my memories to try and make sense of them.</p><p>I too glance at the page, it’s about unsaturated cyclic hydrocarbons, the build up to the introduction of Benzene and other aromatic compounds. He takes great interest in the topic and the two of us wind up flipping through the pages for quite a while.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s really interesting that you humans managed to work all this out on your own. Sure, it was a group effort over the course of generations but it’s still impressive. Makes me wonder how close your kind got to finding the proverbial end of science.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I chuckle lightly and sigh. <em>“We probably never got close. Hell, there probably isn’t an end to science. The closer we looked at the fundamental building blocks of the universe the weirder it got until eventually we found seemingly impossible contradictions between the small and the big.” </em></p><p>I feel Dorn nod slightly. <strong><em>“So, this is only surface level stuff? Like rocks compared to grains of sand.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Kind of, the scales are much, much different but in essence I guess it’s true. I sadly never got to study the sciences too deeply. My knowledge is limited to what I learned in school and whatever I could get from the books available to me.” </em>I shut the book and put it aside again.</p><p><strong><em>“That’s still some really impressive knowledge. I would have never thought too much about these things if it weren’t for your memories.” </em></strong>He rubs his head against mine, then I feel him climb off me to look around the library.</p><p><strong><em>“This entire place is full of books like this right?” </em></strong>He walks up to one of the bookshelves, climbs up on top of it and looks over the dozens upon dozens of rows.</p><p>
  <em>“Not really, there’s multiple sections, some full of books like this, others are all about fiction.” </em>
</p><p>I get out of the chair as well and walk up to the shelve that Dorn is perched upon.</p><p><strong><em>“So much knowledge in one place, no wonder you spent hours upon hours in this place.” </em></strong>He jumps back down and lands in front of my feet with a thud.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s strange how your kind managed to discover all these things, build all these things and yet be so shitty at the same time.” </em></strong>He looks up at me. <strong><em>“But now you’re with us.” </em></strong> A grin appears on his face.</p><p><em>“That’s right. Now I’m with you, things can only get better… Actually, they have gotten much better already.” </em>I turn around to look out the window once more. <em>“It certainly is nice to not have to deal with the anxiety of having to go…home. Not that I had a home for the last few years.” </em></p><p>Suddenly the entire window is blocked by something huge and black flying past it, a split second later the whole building shakes at whatever just flew past hits the ground.</p><p>Both Dorn and I jump back, for a moment everything falls eerily quiet, then Scátháns head appears before the window. <strong><em>“Hello there you two.” </em></strong>He says to us.</p><p><em>“U-uhm hello? What brings you here?” </em>I take a moment to regain my bearings. <strong><em>“Just wanted to check in on the two of you. You’ve been asleep for quite a while.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Asleep? Did I drift off while daydreaming without noticing?” </em>I’m quite surprised, normally I have a short moment where I’m aware of me drifting off to sleep.</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, you two have been snoozing away for some three hours by now.” </em></strong>I can sense his amusement at my being surprised.</p><p><em>“Three hours? It’s got to be afternoon by now. Did we really sleep the day away?” </em>Now I’m not just surprised but shocked. It didn’t feel like it’s been this long.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey, don’t worry sister, didn’t we agree that there was no one rushing us?” </em></strong>Dorn too seems amused. <strong><em>“It’s alright, you two take your time. Besides, it was rather interesting watching you two from the outside.” </em></strong>Scáthán adds.</p><p><em>“Alright, alright, I’m just a little taken aback by so much time passing without me noticing. And I was hoping to spend a bunch of time trying to get good at controlling my mind.” </em>I take a deep breath and sigh.</p><p><strong><em>“No rush Arya, it’ll take time and patience. If you push yourself too much, you’ll only end up getting frustrated. Especially with something like controlling your mind.” </em></strong>Scáthán reminds me.</p><p><strong><em>“And remember sister, time always passes much more quickly when you’re having fun.” </em></strong>Dorn nudges me. <strong><em>“But if you want to, we can do stuff in the real world too. There’s fun to be had there too.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“It might be time to wake up indeed, lest I won’t be able to sleep later tonight. Not that that matters either.”</em> I close my eyes and keep them shut. For a moment I lose contact to Dorn and Scáthán. Then I suddenly start feeling movement around me and a second later I can sense both of their minds again. When I open my eyes again, I’m back in the real world, Dorn is lazily lounging around while half wrapped around me and half tangled in the blanket. Scáthán doesn’t look like he has moved at all in the meantime.</p><p>I yawn and stretch as much as I can while staying under blanket. <em>“I wonder what Dorn had in mind when he talked about having fun in the real world.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“How about you take some time to hone your control over your mind, in the meantime I’ll do the same with Dorn?” </em></strong>Scáthán asks me.</p><p><em>“Uh, sure, I guess. That’s kind of what I planned on doing anyway.” </em>I reply after a brief pause.</p><p><strong><em>“I know, I’ll make sure to keep Dorn busy so you can focus on what you’re doing.” </em></strong>He winks at me then I can feel his attention shift to Dorn. He’s talking to him about something, but I can’t hear him, I can only hear some fragments of it echoing into my mind from Dorn.</p><p><em>“Alright, time to go again.” </em>I look for something to stare at, then try to zone out.</p><p>Turns out that this works much better when I’ve just woken up as I notice my vision going blurry only a few moments later. I slowly turn my head to see if it worked and indeed, I spot two formless floating blobs. One where Scátháns head lies and one right next to me where Dorn lies.</p><p>I snap myself out of the trance and try again. The excitement of having just broken my personal best by several minutes has me fully awake and focused but it turns out to be more of a detriment than an advantage as the second try takes me about ten minutes.</p><p>Once I bring myself back to the real world from that round again, I spend a moment thinking back and trying to figure out what was different.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“Interesting, when I’m tired or exhausted it’s easier for me to zone out, which makes sense, I guess. Generally, it seems like I need to focus on something so hard I burn out my attention span and zone out, so if I could find a way to reliably fuck up my attention span, I could get much faster at this…” </em>
</p><p>I furrow my eyebrows. <em>“But then how do I get to the point of just being able to do it on the fly? If that requires me to just not have an attention span that would be really counterproductive. Maybe there’s some other way that’ll reveal itself to me once I get good at this.” </em>I purse my lips and scratch my chin. <em>“Best to just keep trying for now, I’ll get the hang of it eventually.” </em>With that I resume idly staring at things until I zone out. For the first hour it takes me around fifteen minutes to get to that point, afterwards I do get a bit quicker until I get to around ten minutes at which point, I appear to hit a wall.</p><p>By now I must have tried way over a dozen times and I’m starting to feel it, a light headache starts to accompany me. <em>“One more time, and then I don’t snap out of it right away, instead I’ll try to maintain it for as long as possible.” </em></p><p>Somehow the headache actually ends up helping me zone out as the dull pain drowns out the last remnants of concentration that would usually keep me from fully spacing out.</p><p>With my mind detached from my body I take another look at what my father and Dorn are up to. I had previously only looked over to verify that I had in fact zoned out.</p><p>Theirs minds both are in the same place but now there’s a thick branch extending from Scáthán and the ends of appear to be grasping Dorns mind. At first it looks like they are just making contact but when I take a closer look, I notice that Dorns mind is much less of a formless blob, you can see clearly where it ends. Additionally, it looks like Scátháns mind tendrils just wrap around it instead of penetrating into it like they normally do. I feel like I’ve seen something like this before but I’m not quite sure where.</p><p><em>“What the hell are they up to? Whatever it is I’m not going to disturb them. I have a hunch that that would be a bad idea.” </em>I decide to watch them for a bit, hoping to figure out what it is that they are doing. As I’m watching I notice that the network of tendrils of Scátháns mind had grown a lot denser and that they had started pulsing slowly. I narrow my eyes and lean a little closer, that’s when I suddenly notice a branch extending from my own mind towards both Dorn and Scáthán, it has gotten awfully close to making contact with them. <em>“Oh shit.” </em>I quickly turn my head away and cover my eyes and cower down.</p><p>I shake my head rub my temples, the sudden movements made my headache a lot worse. I slowly look back over to them, they don’t look like they moved. <em>“Whew, lucky me. Though I guess I would have known if I made contact with them.” </em>I take a closer look at them, hoping to gain some insights from their body language. Scáthán looks as relaxed as always but Dorn is visibly tensing up, though he doesn’t look afraid. I furrow my eyebrows and grumble quietly. <em>“Whatever it is that they are up to, it must be something they’re doing with their minds.” </em></p><p>I turn away from them again, returning my sight to the wall opposite of me. <em>“I wonder how much longer they will be busy.” </em>I look towards the caves exit. <em>“Skaftá won’t be back for a while either I’m pretty sure. Oh well, time to mess around some more.” </em>I try to zone out and while at first the headache proves to be quite the problem, eventually I give up trying to focus and instead just wallow in my pain when I suddenly notice my vision going blurry. A quick glance over at my brother confirms that my mind did indeed detach from my body.</p><p><em>“So, this means either a constant headache or fucked attention span will let me easily space out, I’m really starting to like my options.” </em>To prevent me from accidentally contacting their minds I turn my head away and resume staring at the wall. <em>“I wonder what happens if I just sit here. Only one way to find out.” </em>Since I’m already spaced out, mindlessly staring at a wall is the least challenging thing, what does prove to be a bit more difficult is keeping my mind from wandering.</p><p>The little active thoughts that still remain keep trying to leave the cave and ponder grander things.</p><p>Fortunately, I manage to force my mind to stay close to my body without snapping out of my trance, however I do get close to slipping out a couple times.</p><p>After a while I notice that while I’m not looking at them, I can still sense my brothers and Scátháns presence, not like I normally do when our minds are connected but instead it feels sort of like sitting parallel to a fire, I can sort of tell it’s there but not exactly where.</p><p>Much to my surprise I seem to be able to maintain this state indefinitely, aside from having to reel myself back in every now and then I don’t find any issue with sitting there and staring into nothingness.</p><p>Some time passes, probably an hour, when I notice that in addition to the minds of my father and brother I can suddenly feel much, much fainter ones above me. <em>“Huh?” </em>I look up at the ceiling, there’s nothing to be seen there. Not that I was expecting to see anything, what I am sensing feels much further away, as if it’s atop the cliff.</p><p><em>“Those certainly can’t be dragons, there’s far too many of them. Humans wouldn’t make sense either, the memory my brother showed me didn’t have any signs of human life in it.” </em>I try to think harder but then those faint minds suddenly disappear and when I look over at my brother, I notice that I’m just seeing him. <em>“Damn it.” </em>I growl quietly and frown. <em>“I was doing so good. Oh well, I’ll try again another time. For now, I want to know what the hell I just sensed there.” </em>Since it doesn’t look like either Dorn or Scáthán will finish whatever they are doing any time soon I’ll have enough time to figure this out.</p><p>I turn my head upwards and stare the ceiling, it looks to be about half the height of the cliff front if memory serves me right. For a moment, I shut my eyes and try to remember how far away these other blobs were, they did appear quite far away, but not far enough to be up in the sky for sure. <em>“Chances are they were up at the top of the cliff.” </em>I open my eyes again furrow my eyebrows. <em>“So far I’ve only seen these things in my parents, Dorn and inside the eggs and the memories I’ve seen showed that every human has one too.” </em>I hum quietly. <em>“Could very well be that every complex life form has one? It’s strongly connected to one’s brain after all.” </em>I drop my chin onto my chest. <em>“That would mean that there were a bunch of animals up there. Wouldn’t be a surprise honestly, we moved here recently so they haven’t fled just yet.” </em>I briefly pause and once again look over to my father. <em>“I’ll still ask to make sure. I also want to know if I could somehow get into their minds if I wanted to. It would be very interesting to see what the inside of a deer’s mind looks like. Or any animal for that matter.” </em>I rest my head on my palm and begin imaging what the thoughts of different animals might be like, how they would react to suddenly having someone else in their heads and if it could be used to tame them quickly.</p><p>Before I know it, I’ve made a mental check list of things to try out once I get a grip on how to use my mind for these things and hours have passed. I’m only ripped out of my thoughts when I feel claws drag over my arm. I wince and spin my head around to see who’s messing with me. Unsurprisingly it’s my brother once again. He looks up at me with a slightly smug smile, his left front leg snaking under the blanket and up to my forearm. <strong><em>“We’re done Arya, do you want to play?” </em></strong>I take a moment to process what he said, then turn my head to listen for the wind and waves to see if it’s still stormy outside. After I heard nothing for at all I crawl out from under the blanket and step out from Scátháns slipstream.</p><p>The air in cave stands almost completely still, for a moment I even doubt that there’s any wind at all but once I’ve quickly licked the tip of my index finger and hold it up, I can feel some slight cooling indicating at least some airflow.</p><p>I stand still for a moment longer to judge how cold the air is. Surprisingly, with the wind gone it’s not nearly as cold as before. It still feels a little chilly but since playing with my brother will get rather physical, I’ll be fine. <em>“Alright.” </em>I turn around but my brother is already gone</p><p>“Oh no.” I mutter quietly and my eyes dart left and right, looking for my brother.</p><p>Suddenly I notice a quiet swooshing sound behind me. As I spin around, I notice a blurry red blob coming into view at about my shoulder height. <em>“Is he flying?” </em>He’s approaching me quickly and I don’t have much time to think. I decide the best course of action is to try and get him out of the air myself before he crashes into me. I quickly reach for him while turning left, trying to get my arm around his neck and redirecting his path, hoping that he loses control in the process.</p><p>My arm wraps around his neck and I keep turning left while leaning into him. He flaps his wings wildly trying to break loose and he almost manages to as he drags me with him a couple steps. In a last-ditch effort to not have him pull me over I lean in the other direction. Dorn apparently didn’t anticipate me doing that and I manage to redirect his momentum to the point where he won’t be able to recover. I let go off him to send him tumbling away and to the ground but just before I do, he manages to get his claws into my clothes. If he’s going down, he’s going down with me now.</p><p>I struggle to try and get his claws off me, but they’ve firmly caught on and thus I’m dragged with him and we both crash to the ground, me landing straddled over his belly.</p><p>While I’m still busy figuring out where my arms and legs are Dorn is already squirming like mad, trying to get me off.</p><p>Luckily his claws are still caught in my clothes and he quite get them out which mostly keeps him from throwing me off and the way I landed on him also prevents him from rolling on top of me.</p><p>This gives me just enough time regain my bearings and grab his front paws. I try to hold them still, but he has already gotten much stronger and my efforts to keep him still only slow him down anymore. <em>“It’s been less than a week. Why is he so much stronger already?” </em>I think to myself as I struggle to keep some semblance of control over him. <em>“This is looking really bad for me. Give it a month and this won’t be a competition anymore… not that it ever was much of one to begin with.” </em></p><p>He tries to get his hindlegs under me to catapult me off. Instead of trying to keep him down I switch to staying as close to his body as I can, even pushing myself into him, using his front legs to help me. Dorn, now unable to get his hind legs under me now tries to grab onto my shoulder with his mouth and heave me off this way. I do my best to block him by forcing his front legs to be in front of my shoulders but he’s too strong for me to keep his legs still for too long and he ends up getting a good grip on my right shoulder. Unfortunately, he can’t quite manage to do anything with that since his leverage is bad and his neck muscles aren’t strong enough yet.</p><p>We keep wrestling back and forth like this for a while. After just a couple minutes I can feel my arms starting to complain and a film of sweat starts forming on my hands and face. By the ten-minute mark I’m struggling to keep a good grip on his scales and my arms are screaming for relief.</p><p>And after fifteen minutes I’m ready to throw the towel any second, I’ m only barely managing to contain Dorns struggles and while he too has slowed down, he doesn’t look nearly as tired as I am.</p><p>Still my pride keeps me from giving up quite yet, I still feel like I have a fighting chance in getting him to surrender, marking me victorious at least once.</p><p>Dorn growls quietly and suddenly doubles his efforts of trying to get me off. Completely taken by surprise, I inhale sharply as I power through the pain in my arms and try to stay on top. We reach something of a stalemate where he’s trying to get all four of his legs under me but I’m barely managing to keep him from doing just that. My arms are shaking violently, strands of hair are sticking to my face and my back feels sticky and wet. For a couple seemingly endless seconds we remain in this stalemate, frozen like statues. The only things I feel are my sore muscles and the pounding of my heart. Dorn growls once more, baring his teeth. Then he suddenly stops fighting me.</p><p>The sudden lack of resistance leaves me slamming his paws into the ground, then I collapse unto him like a sack of potatoes. He groans and writhes, I can feel him lifting his paws once more, I don’t even try to fight him this time, I can’t anymore. But instead of pushing me off and claiming his victory he rests one paw on my back and gently pats my head with the other. <strong><em>“You fought well sister. I surrender.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“He surrenders…” </em>I let my head fall onto his chest and release a stuttering half laugh half sigh. <em>“He surrenders!” </em>A smile creeps across my face and quickly morphs into a grin. <em>“I won, I fucking won.” </em>A feeling of euphoria like I’ve never felt before settles in.</p><p>I slowly raise my hands and pet his head. <em>“You fought well too. I could have not kept this up for another second.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I know.” </em></strong>He smugly replies. I laugh again and slightly shake my head. <em>“There’s no hiding anything from you is there?” </em></p><p>My arms are much too weak to keep petting him for long and right as I’m about to let them fall to the ground my brother sneakily gives the inside of my left hand a through lick. I groan and roll my eyes. <em>“Why brother. Why?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Mmmh, Salty.” </em></strong>He replies, completely ignoring my question. Since I’m so incredibly tired out I decide to not bother pushing any further and just shake my head.</p><p>His head appears at the edge of my field of view and I can already feel that he’s up to no good. <em>“Come on. Really?” </em>Seeing how there’s no stopping him I put on the most unimpressed expression I can muster and wait.</p><p>As expected, he gives the entire left side of my face a thorough lick from chin to forehead. Surprisingly the feeling of his tongue gliding over my skin isn’t doesn’t leave me as disgusted, it removes the layer of half dried sweat that had accumulated and leaves behind a nice cooling effect, in the end I don’t feel any more gross than before, maybe even slightly cleaner.</p><p>Much to my amusement not everything goes entirely go as he had planned. A bunch of my hair that was previously stuck to my skin is now caught in his tongue and I can see him awkwardly pull his head back, trying to get them off. <em>“Serves you right.” </em>Out of spite I decide to let him taste some of his own medicine and give the scales on his chest a thorough lick as well. <strong><em>“Very funny sister.” </em></strong></p><p>He’s clearly not enjoying it too much either. <em>“Don’t dish out what you can’t take.” </em>I reply and stick out my tongue.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t push your luck sister.” </em></strong>I hear him lick his chops. <em>“Try me.” </em>I snap back with a grin on my face. <strong><em>“I already did, you taste rather salty.” </em></strong>I splutter at his reply and giggle. <em>“Okay that was a good one.” </em>I shake my head and smile. <em>“You silly little dragon...” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Hey, I’m not that little.” </em></strong>He tries to sound offended but it’s quite clear he’s just messing around. I turn my head just far enough to bring Scáthán into view. <em>“I don’t know about that one brother, when did you hatch again? A week ago? Besides, you’re still shorter than me.” </em>He makes a grumbling sound. <strong><em>“Just you wait, before long you’ll be the one turning your head to look at me.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I know. Besides, I already have to turn my head. Just not to look up.” </em>I taunt him.</p><p>He answers with a playful growl but otherwise stays quiet.</p><p>We both remain silent and relax for a while, recovering and simply enjoying being near one another.</p><p><strong><em>“Alright you two, it’s getting late. Time to get you cleaned up.” </em></strong>Scátháns voice breaks through the silence and makes both of us jump a little. After a moment of both of us fumbling, trying to figure out how to get up I try to push myself up, but my arms immediately punish me with searing pain. “Oh fuck.” I groan under my breath. Fortunately, Scáthán is nice enough to help me up by wrapping his tail around me and lifting me up. I expect that he would put me back down but instead it turns out that he’s intent on carrying me all the way. <strong><em>“Hey, why does she get to be carried.” </em></strong>Dorn complains as he struggles to get up.</p><p>Scáthán suddenly stops and freezes for a moment, then he lifts me up further and places me on his back, then slowly turns around and walks back to Dorn, a slight grin on his face. I can’t quite sense his intention but judging Dorns reaction it’s nothing good. All the sudden Dorn doesn’t mind walking at all and quickly gets on all four but before he can take off towards the ocean Scáthán has lowered his head, opened his mouth and plucked him off the ground. Dorn tries to struggle but since his legs and tail dangle out of Scátháns mouth he can’t do anything. <em>“Thank fuck that it’s him and not me.” </em>I think to myself as images of the night that I was abducted by them flash before me.</p><p>I shudder and shake my head. <em>“That’s behind us now. They had to bring me home somehow. Ever since then I’ve been pretty safe around them all things considered.” </em></p><p>The sound of waves crashing snaps me out of my thoughts, and I notice that Scáthán is already standing knee deep in the ocean. He proceeds to unceremoniously drop Dorn into the water, then carefully lifts me off his back and lowers me into the water.</p><p>Once I’m bobbing along the waves in the chilly ocean, he still keeps his tail loosely around me to make sure I can keep myself above water. While my arms still complain it’s not bad enough to be any trouble. I look around to see where my brother has gone. I spot him not far off floating atop the waves. He’s slowly making his way towards me and while it didn’t look like he was too exhausted before it’s now becoming rather evident that he was getting to his limit as well.</p><p>I dive under water for a moment and quickly rub my hands over my face to wash off all the grime. It feels great to have all the dried sweat and crap come off.</p><p>A short moment later I re-emerge and almost have a wave push me into Scáthán. <strong><em>“Careful there little one.” </em></strong>He steps aside and lets the waves slowly push me closer to the shore. In the meantime, Dorn has paddled over to me as well but instead of getting into any sort of shenanigans he simply stays beside me.</p><p>We both soak in the cool ocean for about fifteen minutes, enjoying the late noon sun while we’re outside. Soon Scáthán lifts us both out of the water onto his back to carry us back inside, neither of us mind, we’re both exhausted and the cold water was getting to us.</p><p>Once we’re back inside Dorn hops off and glides towards the ground, almost messing up the landing and crashing when his legs don’t quite keep up as well as he thought they would.</p><p>Before our father puts me back down, he turns to face me, and his eyes take on a slight glow. Almost immediately I can feel the water in my clothes evaporate and a gentle warmth penetrates my skin. Once the water is fully gone, he wraps his tail around my hip and carefully lowers me down to the ground where Dorn is already waiting for me.</p><p>Scáthán walks back to his usual spot and lies down again. Dorn and I quickly follow him and get ourselves comfortable close to him. I end up wrapping the blanket around me and lying down with my head resting on Dorns tail while Dorn lies flat next to me, his head resting on my tummy.</p><p>Now that I can finally lie down and rest the full extent of my exhaustion makes itself known. I feel like I can barely lift my arms anymore but at the same time I feel…satisfied, content.</p><p>The three of us lie in silence, our minds mostly busy with idle thoughts while we wait for Skaftá to return.</p><p>At some point my thoughts return to the questions I had earlier, now would probably be the time to ask. <em>“Hey Dorn.” </em>I briefly pause to make sure I got his attention. <em>“What was that thing you and dad were doing with your mind earlier today?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Hmmm? Oh that.” </em></strong>He gathers his thoughts for a second <strong><em>“That was dad teaching me how to keep others out of my mind even when they try to force their way in.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“You can do that? How does that work?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Yep. It kind of behaves similar to the natural barrier you humans have around your minds except I can control its strength. Dad has been showing me how to do it by focusing on one thought or memory and don’t allow any other conscious thought. The better your focus the harder it is to break in.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod slowly. <em>“That does sound very useful for you, probably nothing I’ll ever get much use out of.” </em>I try to recall what I saw when I watched them training. It did strike me as unusual that Scátháns mind tendrils were only on the surface of Dorns mind and that there was a clear line separating the two unlike normally.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You should probably still learn how to, then you can have more privacy in your own thoughts. And you never know when it might come in handy.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“That is true, I would love to be able to have some actual alone time in my head. And who knows, maybe I’ll run into another dragon someday that isn’t as nice to me as you are.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, though if you’re facing another dragon him getting into your head is one of your lesser concerns.” </em></strong>I quietly laugh and sigh. <em>“You’re right, at that point I have other more pressing issues. Still it would help for remote attacks since it seems like your kind has quite a long range on your telepathic connection.” </em>Dorn makes an affirmative noise. <strong><em>“You’re making good progress on your mental exercises as well sister. You’ve already figured out how to keep your mind from connecting with things it shouldn’t and you managed to sense far off beings.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Am I? I’m not sure I’m making any progress.” </em>I sigh and shake my head. <em>“What do you mean by sensing far off beings? Was that the one time I suddenly noticed a bunch of faraway blobs?”</em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Yes, those probably were the animals living atop the cliff. Mostly small critters like rabbits and maybe a deer or something of that calibre.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“I had a feeling it would be that, would it be safe for me to try and make contact with them?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I’m not quite sure, this distance might be unsafe for you. Besides, those animals too have a protective shield around their minds. It’s quite weak but it’s there nonetheless and even if you manage to break be warned that contacting a mind of an entirely different species is not the safest thing to try.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><strong><em>“Yes, for now you’re better off staying out of the minds of other beings. Ours are fine since your brain has already become accustomed to it but before you learn how to limit the flow of information, I recommend you don’t try anything like that.” </em></strong>Scáthán adds.</p><p>I nod slowly and sigh. <em>“I figured it’d be like that. Oh well, more reason for me to learn all these things quickly. I do really want to try and see what I can do with my mind once I figure out how this all works. I imagine it could come in handy when hunting since I don’t need to get my hands on potential prey.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You are imagining right Arya, though don’t underestimate how much of a fight an animal can put up even mentally. However, I’m sure that once you get used to it, you’ll be able to use it for a huge advantage. At that point you might also be able to use magic to aid you as well which could make you a pretty proficient hunter.” </em></strong>Scáthán answers quickly.</p><p>
  <em>“Right you did talk about magic a bunch but also said it’ll be a while before I can anything meaningful with it. How could I use it to help me hunt though? Wouldn’t I need access to some pretty large amount of magic energy to do any harm to anything larger than a mouse?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You overestimate how fragile life is Arya, no matter how big your opponent most can be taken down with the amount of energy needed to lift a small rock. It’s dangerous if you’re a novice but if you can focus well enough few stand a chance.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I furrow my eyebrows and try to figure out how I could kill anything by expending just a few joules of energy. <strong><em>“The heart is the key Arya, mess with it just a tiny bit and the whole organism collapses.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“You mean I just need to cast a spell to make the heart stop or trip up the electric signals that control it? Is it really that easy?” </em>I shudder a little at the thought of what could happen if this knowledge got in the wrong hands.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Yes, that’s correct. Just a little jolt to the right place at the right time and your heart will simply cease functioning, size barely matters except for the extremely large animals like Giraffes, Elephants and Whales. But even those can be taken down with just a little more effort.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh damn, that’s…scary. So, someone with a decently sized magic pool can make thousands drop dead with ease? What an unsettling thought.”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Fortunately, it’s not that easy, the spell still needs to be directed at someone specifically if you’re trying to keep the energy requirements reasonable. Thus, taking down a single target is still easy but if you’re dealing with more than a handful it’ll be comparatively slow. Besides, why kill when you can make them do what you want.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“That is kind of reassuring, but how would one protect themselves against such an attack? Am I just at the mercy of whoever knows how to do it? Also, what do you mean with making others do what you want, wouldn’t that require breaking their minds and waiting for them to recover?”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“That’s the upside of you humans having no magical abilities, we dragons don’t bother with it since we have more efficient ways of disposing of your kind if we have to. The risk of you running into someone who is capable of doing that is essentially zero.” </em></strong>Scáthán pauses for a second. <strong><em>“One doesn’t have to wait for the mind to recover before you can use your victims’ body to do whatever you want. Just because their mind is in pieces doesn’t mean you can’t just go ahead and control their body. Besides, if you don’t care about their mental state there’s way to speed up the recovery a lot though they’ll end up being nothing more than a sock puppet afterwards.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Wait what? You haven’t told me about that one yet. I mean it makes sense that you could control the body right after breaking someone’s mind but how do you speed up the recovery? Why does that leave the person as nothing more than your puppet?” </em>I’m getting a sinking feeling in my gut, what if that’s what they did to me. They did mention trying to make it easier for me to recover.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You needn’t worry little one, if we had turned you into a puppet you wouldn’t be having these thoughts, hell you would be unable to act on your own at all. The way it works is that in the vulnerable state right after breaking someone’s mind the mind is extremely receptive to suggestions as it tries to figure out what it’s supposed to be. With time the fragments slowly fix themselves but if a malicious third party were to suggest things to the victims’ mind in those moments the fragments would reform in almost exactly the suggested way. Meaning you can make the person behave whatever way you want. Again, we don’t usually do this. There’s little for us to gain.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I take a deep breath and sigh. <em>“Alright, that’s kind of reassuring, I guess…” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry sister, if our parents were trying be malicious, I would stop them.” </em></strong>Dorn says while rubbing his head against my tummy. I smile and pet his head. <em>“I’m sure you would.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Don’t concern yourself too much with it, Arya. As I said we have little to gain from doing any manipulating or other shenanigans. We truly only want to give you a better life.” </em></strong>Scáthán sounds very sincere in his words and his mind doesn’t give me any reason to believe he’s lying either.</p><p>
  <em>“I know, I just can’t get keep myself from suspecting that everyone and everything is out to use and abuse me. I hope you can forgive me for constantly doubting your intentions, I can’t help but feel insecure.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry about us. We know you’ve got a troubled past, we understand that you don’t trust easily and often find yourself doubting. We’ll do our what we can to give you the best chance at healing, though we might still sometimes mess up. It’ll be a learning experience for all of us.” </em></strong>Scáthán shifts his head closer and I gently place my hand on his scales. <em>“I thank you for everything you do. I wish I could get over my past quicker.” </em>Tears well up in my eyes and I quickly shut my eyes to hide them, though a single tear still escapes my eyes and rolls down my cheek.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s okay Arya. You’ve suffered a lot, don’t rush yourself or feel pressured to do anything. We have all the time we need.” </em></strong> I can feel Scáthán appreciating the gentle pets and his words put a smile on my face.</p><p><em>“I don’t think anyone has ever been as nice to me as you two.” </em>I turn my head to the side and intently look at him.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey and what about me?” </em></strong>I hear Dorn ask as he nudges my other hand. While quietly laugh I rub his head. <em>“You too obviously.” </em>Dorn makes a happy sounding noise and rubs his head against my palm.</p><p>The three of us fall silent again but not for long. <em>“Say brother, have you already figured out how to take off? When we were playing earlier you were coming at me while flying. Did you actually take off yourself or did dad help you?” </em>For a moment Dorn stays silent, though I can feel his mind fill with pride and joy. <strong><em>“Why yes I did take off myself. How else did you think I got into the air?” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Heck if I know, Scáthán could have helped you somehow? I just wonder because from the memoires I’ve been shown it usually takes at least a couple weeks before new born dragons learn how to fly.” </em>I return my gaze to my brother and inquisitively stare at him.</p><p><strong><em>“I might just be a natural talent. I can show you if you want me to.” </em></strong>While he did add a can to the sentence, I can feel that he really is just trying to get me to ask him to show off.</p><p><em>“No need to ask Dorn, if you want to show me something just tell me you want to.” </em>Before I can finish my sentence he’s already slipping out from under my hand and I can feel his tail getting pulled out from under my head. He quickly hops a few feet (~2m) away from me, then stops and looks at me to make sure I’m actually watching. In the meantime, I sit up and crawl backwards until I feel my back bump against Scátháns head. I get myself comfortable again and lean back.</p><p>Dorn turns his head straight, makes sure his paws have proper grip and wiggles his hind legs to warm up the muscles. Then he leaps forward once, twice, spreads his wings and during the third leap starts flapping them. For a moment it looks like he’s not going to stay in the air but a few more powerful strokes of his wings he slowly gains some height. By now he’s almost at the bend towards the caves exit. I assume he’s going to have to land now since getting into the air is one thing but turning takes some more skill. Much to my surprise however, he tilts his body to the left and starts turning. At first it looks like he’s going to make the full turn with no issues but after a few seconds it becomes evident that he’s going to crash into the wall at this rate. <em>“Oh no.” </em>I try to get out from under my blanket and rush to him, I’m not going to make it in time to prevent anything from happening, but I at least want to get to his side quickly.</p><p>However, my concerns turn out to be unfounded as he suddenly pulls in his wings and pushes himself off the wall with two of his legs, then he spreads his wings again and slowly glides to the ground. His landing isn’t nearly as smooth as him taking off as he hasn’t quite figured out how to use his wings to brake yet, but he manages to avoid tripping over his legs and comes to a stumbling halt right in front of me. He looks up at me with excitement in his eyes.</p><p><em>“Well colour my surprised, you do know how to fly. Not only that but also turn and land without crashing.” </em>I kneel down and spread my arms as an invitation for a hug which he all to happily accepts. As he wraps his front legs around my shoulders, I do the same with my arms, then he covers me with his wings. <em>“Good job, I shouldn’t have doubted you.” </em></p><p>He lets go of me and we both lie down next to Scáthán again. <em>“But how did you learn so quickly? You’ve only been out once, and I guess if you count our trip to the ocean twice.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Turns out I’ve got a talent, I guess. I didn’t struggle with learning how to take off or land.” </em></strong>While his voice sounds calm, I can feel the joy and excitement radiating from his mind. <strong><em>“Though turning still gives me some problems as you saw, I tend to undershoot because I’m not sure how much I can lean into it without losing too much lift.”</em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“That’s already much more than either of you parents could do at this age I’m pretty sure.”</em>
</p><p>I bring up the string of memories that Scáthán had shown me a while ago of how his struggles to learn how to fly. It took him four weeks before he could reliably take off, land and turn.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“They also had less help from their parents. Much like you humans each family of dragons has their own style of raising their offspring. Neither Skaftás nor Scátháns parents helped them much after giving them the bare minimum of instructions. That isn’t to say what they did is worse than how I was taught. Probably worked better for them specifically even.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Right, your kind, just like mine, differs hugely from individual to individual. Most larger species probably are.” </em>Dorn simply nods as an answer and curls up a little more.</p><p>I place one arm around him and lie down. Moments later Dorn nudges me to get my attention. He motions me to lift my head and as I do, he moves his neck under my head. I shuffle around a little to get comfortable once more and then rest my head once more. With both of us content he rests his head on my sternum, or at least where it would be under the blanket.</p><p>We lie still for a while, keeping to ourselves. However, after some time I notice my vision going blurry and when I look down, I see a formless blob where the outline of my brothers’ head lies.</p><p><em>“I just unintentionally zoned out, didn’t I?” </em>For a moment I wonder if I should stay like this or bring myself back to reality but by the time, I’ve decided to stay it’s already too late as I can watch a branch extending from me, make contact with my brother’s mind.</p><p>He appears just as surprised by it as I am as we both jump a little in surprise when we suddenly hear each other’s thoughts. He was apparently busy trying to get a better grasp on how tight of a curve he can fly for a given speed as a dozen memories of him either under or overshooting it fly across my inner eye.</p><p><strong><em>“Hello there. sister. How did you get here? Did you zone out?” </em></strong>He turns his head to look up at me.</p><p><em>“Uh, uhm, errrr.” </em>My thoughts stutter and come to a screeching halt as my brain tries to catch up with all the information flooding into my mind, fortunately it soon dies down. <em>“I must have. Didn’t even try to, it just kind of happened. Then as I was wondering what I should do I accidentally made a connection with you.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You can be proud of that, subconsciously doing that is not an easy feat.” </em></strong>I can see his lips move but the blur makes it hard to tell what exactly he’s doing, probably grinning though judging by his mind.</p><p>I smile back and slowly turn my sight elsewhere, I can still hear his thoughts for a bit but then they suddenly cut out. When I look back at him, I notice that the tendril had detached itself from Dorns mind and is slowly retracting further, though as I keep looking in his direction it starts growing once more.</p><p>I quickly avert my eyes again and resume staring at the ceiling, hoping that I could manage to spot all the small minds I saw earlier.</p><p>Much to my surprise however, instead of many small I notice a big blue blob quickly moving across the cliff above, going over the edge and then quickly approaching the ocean. <em>“Skaftá must be back.” </em>I turn my head to look towards the caves entrance and wait. As I stare at the rocks, I notice that my vision had cleared up again. Noticing her must have thrown me off so much that I returned to the real world.</p><p>A minute or so later Skaftá comes walking around the bend, carrying the carcass of a cow with one paw, dragging another behind her with her tail and her mouth full of fish judging by the ones sticking through her lips.</p><p><em>“Holy shit, how did she carry all of this, on top of whatever she ate herself as well.” </em>She drops the cow she’s holding a dozen feet (~4m) away from us, it crashes into the ground with wet slap and crunch, the carcass deforming quite a bit from the fall, then drags the other one next to it and let’s go. Before she heads to her usual spot she stops once more and lowers her head to release a flood of fish from her mouth, it turns into a pile visibly larger than the last one. My eyes go wide in awe. <em>“Just how much does she expect us to eat? Is there someone coming to visit?” </em>I ask myself half-jokingly.</p><p><em>“Welcome back Skaftá, looks like you were rather successful today.” </em>I direct my thoughts towards her.</p><p>As she lies down it becomes quite clear that she’s rather tired. Instead of the usual graciousness she just drops herself to the ground with a thud. She looks at me with tired eyes, blinks slowly, then lowers her head to the ground as well. <strong><em>“Thank you, Arya. It’s alright, could have gone better. If you’re hungry please go and have at it. I’m sure there’ll be enough for the three of you.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I’m sure I will, thank you so much. It must have been extremely exhausting gathering all this. Though I have to ask, why so much?” </em>I can feel Dorn eagerly wanting to get up and engorge on the fish but can’t because I’m lying on him.</p><p>Before he decides to force his way out from under me, I sit up and watch him hop over to the pile of fish. After licking his chops, he begins tearing into it with an astounding vigour.</p><p>I shake my head and keep watching him for a while. As I sit there watching I notice Scáthán move behind me, he too gets up and picks up one of the cow carcasses. He carries it back to his resting spot and leisurely starts nibbling away at it. Though even his nibbles tear out chunks the size of my head.</p><p>I wait for Dorn to slow down before I bother getting up and grabbing a fish of my own. While I wasn’t feeling hungry per se I could tell that I was starting to run low on energy.</p><p>Once I picked my dinner, I make my way over to the sad remains of the fire, a lot of it had been blown away by the winds and only a few charred chunks remain.</p><p>I pile more fresh wood onto them until I’ve built another neat pile, then grab the slab of stone and throw the fish onto it to process it later.</p><p><em>“Right, now I just need someone to light it.” </em>My eyes wander over to Skaftá, she looks incredibly tired and had been out all day, I wouldn’t want to inconvenience her. I look over to Scáthán, who by now has eaten half of his meal, his snout covered in blood and gore. <em>“He’s rather busy as well.” </em></p><p>I look for Dorn, but I can only see the lower half of his body as he’s still digging into the pile of fish.</p><p>
  <em>“Yep, it’ll be a while before I can have a fire. Oh well, gives me some time to prep my meal.”</em>
</p><p>I look for my makeshift knife and once I find it start cutting away at the fish.</p><p>For some reason this one is giving me a lot more trouble than it should, and I find myself quietly cussing as I struggle to even do the first cut along the bottom of the fish.</p><p>Annoyed, I look over to Scáthán, hoping that he’d be done eating so that he could light the fire for me since I’m also starting to feel a little chilly.</p><p>Sadly, no such luck for me but as I turn my head back towards my dinner, I notice that my brother seems to be looking over at me.</p><p>He’s looking over the smaller pile of fish now, half of one sticking out of his mouth. We lock eyes for a moment, and I can feel his presence in my head grow stronger.</p><p>A moment later he jerks his head forwards to bring the rest of his meal into his mouth and swallows, then he hops over the pile and walks over to me.</p><p><strong><em>“While I can’t help you light a fire, I can help you with your fish and keep you warm.” </em></strong>He sits down next to me and places one wing around me. <strong><em>“May I?” </em></strong>He asks while eyeing the fish I’m holding.</p><p><em>“Uh sure.” </em>For just a second, I hesitate, wondering if he would just try and steal it again but then I remember that even if he did there would be plenty more.</p><p>I place it in front of him and he pokes at it with his claws before pinning it to the ground and using his claws to cut it open.</p><p>Now it’s his turn to hesitate as he tries to figure out what to do next. <strong><em>“Can you lend me a hand or two?” </em></strong>I can tell that he’s struggling to open the fish up to get the guts out.</p><p><em>“Sure thing.” </em>I pick the fish up and slip my fingers into the cut he made, then carefully force the halves apart. Once they’re far enough apart Dorn moves in and cuts the exposed guts loose and once, they’re all detached I let them slide off onto the stone slab. <em>“Thanks a lot brother.” </em>I reach out to pet him but quickly retract my hand when I realize that it’s full of slime and crap, instead I decide to offer him a warm smile as my thanks. He smiles back and rubs his head against mine. <strong><em>“No problem, also I have to say that your hands are quite the nifty tool, wish I would have something like that.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Heh, I guess. They are the reason we humans ended up where we are now. But I would also argue that your magic is an even better tool than my hands could ever be.” </em>He pushes against me so strongly my head almost ends up on my shoulder so I push back as strongly as I can, he seems to enjoy my pushback quite a bit.</p><p>We both jump in unison as we suddenly hear the gut-wrenching crunch of dozens of bones breaking. Both of our heads spin around to Scáthán and we see him swallow what must have been the last of his dinner. I peer at Dorn with an inquisitive gaze. <strong><em>“I’m pretty sure he left the spine and hindlegs of the cow in once piece and then ate it all at once. I’m also pretty sure that it was intentional.” </em></strong>He’s staring straight at his dad, I can tell he’s just a puzzled as I am.</p><p><em>“What a meanie, I’m sure he planned on spooking us.” </em>I shake my head and look up at Scáthán again. <em>“Can you at least help me start a fire?” </em>He tilts his head a little and feigns innocence. <strong><em>“What the upset tone little one?” </em></strong>He asks, followed by a quick wink. <strong><em>“If you two could stay back for a second.” </em></strong></p><p>We both scoot away from the pile of fire wood without averting our eyes from him.</p><p>He brings his head as close as he can without moving. Then breathes in deeply and releases an eight foot (2,4m) long flame from his mouth. It quickly engulfs the pile of wood and moments later the usual cracking and popping of burning wood is heard. The heat of the flame still stings even though we’re fairly far away, fortunately Dorn isn’t too bothered by the heat and quickly moves to shield my face from it.</p><p>Scáthán keeps the flame alive for some dozen seconds or so and then shuts his mouth again, snuffing the roaring flames in an instant.</p><p>Even without looking I can already hear and feel that the fire is burning bright and strong. <em>“Thanks Dad.” </em>Dorn immediately moves to sit next to the fire, I follow closely behind him. I go to grab the fish and throw it onto the rock but then I notice that I forgot to put it into the pile. <em>“Fuck…” </em>I slowly turn my head to Scáthán again. <em>“Can I ask you for one more favour?” </em>I awkwardly grin at him. I can feel his amusement as he grins back. <strong><em>“What’s in it for me?” </em></strong>He tilts his head</p><p><em>“Head scratches.” </em>I reply trying to sound as deadpan as I can. He didn’t expect that reply and freezes for a moment as he thinks about what to say next. <strong><em>“I’ll take that.” </em></strong>He intently stares at the rock and a very faint glow appears in his eyes, if it weren’t for his black scales, I wouldn’t have been able to see it. The rock suddenly jumps into the air and hovers still for a moment, then moves into the flames and is slowly lowered onto the wood by a magical force.</p><p>I watch it fly through the air, completely mesmerized, it feels like a wild fever dream, but it is in fact real, I am watching magic happen right now. <em>“It’ll be a while before I get used to this.” </em>I think to myself after the rock has stopped moving. <em>“Anyway, where were we?” </em>I grab the fish and quickly place it on the rock, lest the flames burn my arms. It takes a moment for the rock to heat up and start sizzling but once it does and the smell of cooking fish fills my stomach loudly reminds me of just how hungry I am. I feel saliva collect in my mouth as I watch my meal slowly cook, completely enthralled by the bubbles appearing pupping at its edges as the flesh slowly changes colour.</p><p>After too much waiting, I deem my food done and quickly skewer it with my knife and flip it around to avoid burning it. <em>“Uuuuh damn, how do I go about eating this now, can’t exactly pick it off the rock and eat it, it’s just a bit too hot for that.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I’ll do you one more favour in return for head scratches.” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me and suddenly the rock begins floating again. <strong><em>“Caution hot surface.” </em></strong>He says as the rock float past me and sinks to the ground two feet (0,6m) away from me.</p><p><em>“Thank you very much.” </em>While I wait for my food to cool down my eyes wander about and eventually land on Skaftá, she looks like she’s sleeping tightly. <em>“Oh my, she must have been very exhausted. She didn’t even say she was going to sleep. Or maybe she’s just napping.” </em>I shut my eyes and feel around my mind for her presence, it’s there but very weak, indicating that she is in fact fast asleep. <em>“Understandable after being out and about hunting all day.” </em></p><p>A while later I figure the fish must have cooled down enough and poke it with my finger to test.</p><p><em>“Feels about right.” </em>I take my knife and cut a piece off, this one appears to have a lot more bones in it than the las tone but at least the meat easily comes loose from the big ones, leaving only a few small ones in there. I quickly eat a large portion of the fish without even starting to feel full and after about three quarters of it decide to take a break because I start worrying that I may overeat.</p><p>As expected, a few minutes later I feel rather full. <strong><em>“I admire your restraint sister, I would have kept eating.” </em></strong>Dorn says while looking up at me. I smile and lick my hands clean, then dry them close to the flames and pet his head. <em>“It’s a learning process, I too did overeat a lot at some point but eventually learned that all it does is give you pain.” </em></p><p>Dorn rubs his head against my side and rests it on my lap. <strong><em>“I still have a lot to learn.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“And that’s perfectly fine, hell I’m pretty sure no one ever stops learning.” </em>
</p><p>I hold my arms close to the fire to warm them up a little, I hadn’t noticed them getting cold while eating. Once they’re warm again I resume petting my brothers head.</p><p>We both watch the fire slowly burn down as the sun sets outside and the light slowly fades from the cave. <strong><em>“Ahem, what about the head scratches you promised Arya?” </em></strong> Scáthán says teasingly. <em>“Later? I’m really comfy with my brother right now.” </em>I look over at him and give him a pleading look. <strong><em>“Mmmh fine, but if you forget about it, I’ll be forced to lick you. From head to toe. Yes, that’s a threat.” </em></strong>He winks at me and grins. I visibly shudder at the thought, though more to play along with his joking threat than actual disgust. <em>“I’m pretty sure there’s someone who would strongly object to that threat.” </em>I peer over at Skaftá, who’s still tight asleep. <strong><em>“I would strongly object too.” </em></strong>Dorn interjects and puts a paw over my thighs and tries pulling me closer to him.</p><p>Both Scáthán and I chuckle, and I pat his neck. <em>“Thank you, brother, protect me from the meanie that is our father.” </em></p><p>He quietly growls at Scáthán and bares his teeth. Scáthán pretends to be scared and skitters backwards just a bit.</p><p>Dorn, clearly satisfied with what he did, rests his head on my lap again and murrs contently.</p><p>A while later the fire has died down considerably and the remaining warmth from the sun is fleeing too. I look down at my brother and stop petting him, just resting my hand flat on his head. <em>“I say we go move over to dad, it’s getting quite late as well so we might want to sleep soon anyway.” </em>He makes a slightly displeased sounding noise but lifts his head without further protest.</p><p>I try to stand up and nearly fall over again as the blood flow to my legs had been restricting by the weight of Dorns head. I inhale sharply and barely manage to catch my balance, then carefully take a few steps forward, luckily my legs don’t give me any more issues and we both sit down next to Scátháns side. He doesn’t wait long to move his head right in front of me, leaving me less than a foot (30cm) to move. <em>“I’m not moving till you give me at least a little bit more space.” </em>I push against his head and surprisingly he obliges almost immediately. <em>“There we go.” </em>I get myself comfortable, leaning my side against his head, one arm resting on the front bit of his head.</p><p>Sadly, his head is just too high for me to get truly comfortable so I have to make do with my arm being almost above my head and my should being at an awkward angle. For a moment I wonder if I should sit further back but his head is even taller there. I purse my lips and grumble quietly. <em>“This is more inconvenient than I imagined it.” </em>I decide to just live with it anyway and start petting his head.</p><p><strong><em>“Can I help you sister?” </em></strong>Dorn steps over my feet and looks at me with curious eyes.</p><p>
  <em>“Unless you can somehow make me taller no, I think.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“What if you go sit on my back?” </em></strong>He smiles and is clearly eager to try. <em>“Are you sure I’m not too heavy for you?” </em>I look past his head at his back, sure he doesn’t look frail but I’m also not the lightest person there is. <strong><em>“I’m sure you aren’t, remember how you were lying on top of me for a while earlier today? I was perfectly fine with that.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Is that so? I guess trying can’t hurt.” </em>I sit up and Dorn quickly scurries behind me, then pushes his head through my legs. I move my feet a bit further apart to let him get his shoulders through and once he considers himself well positioned, he lies down on his belly. <strong><em>“Just go sit down Arya, I’ll complain when it gets too much.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Alright…” </em>I slowly sit down on his back and place my legs to the left and right of his neck. Surprisingly the little bit of height I gained this way makes all the difference and lets me comfortably rest myself against Scátháns head. <em>“You’re sure you’re fine Dorn?” </em>I ask him once more and he replies with an affirmative grumble.</p><p>Now that I’m not going to feel like my arm is falling off in ten minutes, I actually start giving Scáthán his long-promised head scratches. He appears to enjoy it quite a bit, making happy sounding noises every now and then.</p><p>While his body heat keeps me warm below my shoulders, the wind still gets to my shoulders and above and before long it gets rather uncomfortable. Luckily Scáthán takes note and places his wing over us, it doesn’t help warm me up again but at least the wind doesn’t get to me anymore.</p><p>The three of us remain like this for quite some time. Surprisingly I’m not feeling tired yet, sure my arms and legs are starting to feel sore again, probably the effects of me playing with Dorn today, but mentally I’m still feeling fine.</p><p>At some point I notice Skaftás presence in my head grow stronger, she must have woken up.</p><p>I hear her move about, then the sound of something getting dragged along the floor followed by the sound of her tearing into the cow’s carcass. <em>“That’s what that one was for, I see.” </em>I focus my attention on her. <em>“Hello Mom, are you feeling better now? You seemed very exhausted earlier.” </em></p><p>She takes a moment to reply and I notice a short pause between her taking chunks out of the cow.</p><p><strong><em>“Yes, I’m feeling quite well. Though just like you my muscles are giving me hell for what I did to them today.” </em></strong>           I can sense her heartily tearing another piece of meat out of the sad remains of her meal. <em>“That’s good to know. May I ask why you brought so much food today? I figured the two cows were for you and Scáthán but why the gigantic pile of fish? Besides, how did you fit that all into your mouth and how long did you have to carry it?” </em>I can feel Scáthán playfully glare at me as I had stopped petting him for a moment. I quickly resume not wanting to risk whatever he was thinking about doing.</p><p><strong><em>“I had a hunch that the other eggs might hatch today so I brought a bunch more and even if I’m wrong Dorn will likely eat most of the rest earlier tomorrow and what’s left after that will serve as a snack for me or Scáthán. As for how I caught them, I came across a very large swarm and it was pretty easy to, bit by bit, fill my mouth with fish by diving through the swarm over and over. I just used magic to keep the ones I caught confined to my mouth. And I only had to carry them around with me for a few hours, as luck would have it there was a flock of cows grazing atop the cliff so once I had my mouth full of fish, I flew up there and killed two.” </em></strong>By now she’s mostly done with her meal and devours the rest in one piece.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I see you have been making quite some progress as well, even sensed me coming back before I was over the cliff. I must say I’m impressed at your ability to teach yourself.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Heh, thanks.” </em>I feel some indescribable feeling that I’ve rarely if ever had before. Some mix of pride and shyness with some other things that elude any attempt at describing them. <em>“Could this be how it feels like to be praised?” </em>In that moment I realize that I had never actually heard a sincerely positive word about me from either of my parents.</p><p>Suddenly my emotions are overwhelmed with panic and fear again as memories of my abuse come through once more.</p><p>I quickly shake my head trying to be rid of them but when that doesn’t work, I bury my face in my hands. <em>“Go away, go away, go away, go away, go away…” </em>I keep thinking, over and over and over again.</p><p>Suddenly I feel someone nudge me from the side. I move two fingers apart and peek through them.</p><p>Scáthán had poked me and is now looking at me with both of his huge eyes fixated on mine. <strong><em>“Shhhh, calm down Arya, he can’t hurt you anymore. You’re save with us.” </em></strong>I hear them both say to me in unison. I sniffled and wipe the tears that had begun building up away. <em>“I know, still the trauma sits too deep. I can’t move past it.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“And that’s okay, with time it’ll get better. It might never leave you but at least you’ll eventually be able to not be afraid anymore. We’ll always provide a safe haven for you.” </em></strong>They both smile at me. <strong><em>“And if our parents can’t then I’ll still be by your side.” </em></strong>Dorn adds.</p><p>I take a deep breath and sigh. <em>“I’m so unspeakably glad that I’ve got you three.” </em>I put on a smile as well and lean forward to hug my brothers’ neck. He pushes himself into my embrace and makes some happy sounding noise. From the edge of my view I notice Scátháns tail moving and a moment later feel it brush against the back of my head. He lets it slide back and forth, making it almost feel like a gentle head rub.</p><p>I reach around and pat his tail. <em>“Thank you so very much.” </em></p><p>Skaftá returns to her spot and lies down, Scáthán rests his head next to me and my brother once again and everything kind of returns to normal for a bit.</p><p>By now I’m starting to feel a bit tired and wonder if I should go and grab my blanket soon, I can’t imagine the other three being up for that much longer either.</p><p>Eventually I decide that no matter how long it’ll be before bed time I should just go grab my blanket anyway. Thus, I let go off my brother, make my way around Scátháns head and start searching. Apparently, he had moved the blanket to the makeshift bed I had made. <em>“Well that didn’t see much use yet. It was fun to build it though.” </em>I recall the struggles of my brother and me trying to tie branches together to build something of a frame.</p><p>As I bend over to pick up the cover, a breeze blows into the cave, making me shudder as the wind cools me. Once the wind dies down again, I notice that in some spots my skin feels colder than others. I look down at my shirt and notice a plethora of holes. Dorn must have made them when he dug his claws in while playing. I’m honestly surprised it didn’t tear even more. <em>“Well I should probably change out of these clothes soon anyway and wash what is salvageable.” </em>I throw the blanket over my shoulders and make my way back, though halfway there I hear a clicking sound and notice Skaftás mind suddenly becoming a lot more active. I look over at her and see her hopping to her feet and stepping aside. <em>“Huh? What’s going on.” </em>I hear Scáthán get up too and a second later he walks past me. Only then do I notice the two remaining eggs.</p><p>
  <em>“Oh right. She did mention something about having a hunch. Turns out she was correct huh.” </em>
</p><p>The two of them sit down just a few feet away, both intently staring down at the eggs.</p><p>The brown one occasionally shakes and clicking sounds emanate from it. <em>“Seems just one is ready.” </em></p><p>Dorn brushes against my leg, making me jump a little. <strong><em>“What are you still standing here. Come watch.” </em></strong>He quickly walks over to them, sitting himself down a little bit further away.</p><p>I carefully sneak closer, keeping my eyes fixed onto the brown egg as it shakes with increasing frequency. I sit down next my brother and throw the blanket over my back to stay warm.</p><p>The four of us stay completely silent as we watch the first cracks form on the shell.</p><p>Just as I thought the other egg wouldn’t be hatching today it too start moving but much more weakly. <em>“Oh boy, seems like I’m getting two more siblings today.” </em></p><p>The brown egg begins shaking so violently it almost falls over several times and, in the process, the first pieces of the shell start coming loose. Suddenly it falls silent for a second only to be completely knocked onto its side a second later.</p><p>In the meantime, the green egg has barely changed, the sounds coming from it sound almost feeble, the shell hasn’t begun cracking yet either.</p><p><em>“I wonder if something is wrong with it…” </em>I try my best to not become concerned and instead focus on the brown egg once more. The dragon inside manages to break a piece of the shell free and for a moment I can see it pressing its nose against it, trying to push the rest of its head through as well. Sadly, the hole is too small for it to fit through, so it quickly returns to breaking more of the shell.</p><p><em>“This one’s going pretty fast, it must be pretty strong.” </em>For some reason it takes quite a while to widen to hole far enough for its head to fit through. It immediately uses its chance and I can see a head and neck covered in dark brown, almost wood coloured, scales emerge. It quickly moves its head as it looks around the world for the first time. I can feel its mind brush against mine for a moment, though it appears to take a lot less interest in me compared to Dorn. I notice that its eyes are pretty similar in colour to its scales, just brighter. Quite unlike Dorn or his parents who all have much brighter eyes than scales. The hatchling tries to get the rest of its body through the hole, but its shoulders are much too wide. Though now that it has an opening to work with it manages to widen the hole considerably in little time. <em>“I wonder if he can break free fast than Dorn did.” </em>Every now and then the dragon tries to force its way out of the egg but still its shoulders don’t quite fit through. With the hole this wide the hatchling can’t get a good angle to push against it anymore, slowing it down considerably.</p><p>For a moment I wonder if I should go and help it, surely, I could break out some pieces of the shell.</p><p>
  <em>“No wait, I’ve read about reptile eggs having some sort of skin on the inside that also contains blood vessels and such. I would probably hurt it somehow in my attempt to help. Though they are from a different planet all together so who knows, their eggs may be completely different. They can support the hatchling for upwards of two years after all.” </em>
</p><p>I take another thorough look at the egg, it looks like it’s about to break anyway so my help is unlikely to be necessary.</p><p>
  <em>“Now that I look at it, I can’t help but notice that they break the egg differently than I expected. They completely lack the horn like appendage baby reptiles have to aid them in breaking the shell. Looks like they use only their claws and sheer brute force to break the shell. It looks much sturdier too, I’m surprised they stand a chance at all.” </em>
</p><p>I resume idly watching, though the thought of helping keeps crossing my mind.</p><p>Eventually though, its shoulders slip past, aided by the thick liquid coating it and it stumbles out into the cave.</p><p>It looks a little bit smaller than Dorn, a less bulkily built too but overall quite comparable to Dorn.</p><p>Since I already know what comes next, I shield my face with my hands. The baby dragon vigorously shakes its entire body but fortunately I’m far enough away to not be hit by bits of slime flying around.</p><p>This time it’s Scátháns turn to clean the little one up properly, he isn’t any gentler than Skaftá was with Dorn and simply drags his tongue along the full body length of it, then flips the hatchling on its back and repeats the same. Just like Dorn the hatchling makes his displeasure known and even claws at him though the swipes of his paws are immediately met with a low growl from Scáthán.</p><p>Clearly intimidated the baby dragon holds still and, while still looking displeased lets his father clean him off. Once Scáthán flips it back onto its paws it carefully stumbles around its egg, trying to figure out how its legs work.</p><p>As it stumbles about my attention turns towards the green egg. In the time that has passed since I last looked little has changed but at least there’s a crack in the shell now. <em>“It might just be taking longer…I hope.” </em>Though as I keep watching I notice that the movements of the egg look less coordinated and are a lot sparser, as if the dragon inside is struggling.</p><p>Skaftá picks up the remnants of the brown egg and moves it aside, then wraps her tail around the freshly hatched dragon and moves him aside, keeping her tail wrapped around him. Probably to keep him from strolling off.</p><p>With just one egg left we all watch it move and shake but unlike the other two it doesn’t seem to be making any progress.</p><p>I don’t know how much time has passed since the hatchling inside started trying to break out, but it must have been half an hour at least. <em>“How long did Dorn and his sibling take? Fifteen to twenty minutes? No longer than that for sure.” </em>I look over to my brother but he’s too focused on the egg to notice my concerns, neither did our parents it seems.</p><p><em>“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” </em>I return my attention to the last egg again.</p><p>A bunch more time passes, soon we must be approaching the one-hour mark and by now the dragon is no closer to hatching. I’m starting to get quite worried and I can feel that my brother thinks something is off too. I wonder if I should ask them if something was up but if there was truly something amiss, they surely would have done something about it.</p><p>The egg falls completely silent for a solid moment before moving at all again, then an unusual sound comes from it. Before it had always been the usual sounds of something trying to break free with the occasional noise made by the baby dragon as its body is pushed to its limits, just like with Dorn and the other sibling. But this time it sounds different, almost like a cry of distress.</p><p><em>“Oh no…” </em>Scáthán and Skaftá give each other a knowing look and Skaftá lowers her head.</p><p>She nudges the egg a little, making it sway left and right before coming to a standstill again.</p><p>Another cry of distress is heard from within, louder this time.</p><p>Skaftá pauses for a moment, then slowly opens her mouth.</p><p>I feel my heart sink and my breath falters. <em>“What is she doing?” </em>She picks the egg up with her teeth and lifts it off the ground. <em>“Oh god.” </em>I inhale sharply and reach out to her as she puts pressure onto the egg. The shell cracks and creaks loudly, then suddenly shatters.</p><p>I shut my eyes as I expect Skaftás jaws to slam shut, crushing the hatchling with them but when the sound of her mouth shutting stays absent, I carefully open my eyes again.</p><p>I see a small dragon lying on the floor in a heap, its scales are a mix of ash and green in colour though its eyes shine a vibrant lighter green. <em>“I wonder how they ended up with these colour mixes in their offspring.” </em></p><p>The dragon tries to get up, but its legs give way, leaving it to fall down again. Skaftá quickly moves to clean it up too, the hatchling tries to squirm but it’s too weak to do much, so it only yelps pitifully. As it struggles, I notice that the movement of its right front leg seems oddly stiff.</p><p>Skaftá makes quick work of cleaning it up and flips it back onto its feet. This time it can hold itself up long enough to take a step but again the right front leg doesn’t move right, and it instead slips on the puddle of mucus and splats onto the ground again.</p><p>Skaftá and Scáthán exchange a concerned look, I can feel Dorn growing quite worried too. <em>“What’s wrong? Please tell me it’s nothing bad.” </em>I look at the small baby dragon as it keeps trying and failing to get up. I can feel my heart racing and panic begins to take over my mind. <em>“What if something is really wrong with it…” </em></p><p><strong><em>“She’ll be fine. Though I think it’s best if you cover your ears for a minute.” </em></strong>Scáthán sounds very serious, much more so than ever before. <em>“Please just tell me what’s up. Please.” </em>I beg him.</p><p>He takes a moment to reply. <strong><em>“A joint in her leg didn’t grow right leaving it immobilized. That’s also why she couldn’t break the egg. We’ll be able to fix it, it just won’t be pretty.” </em></strong></p><p>I feel my jaw drop a little. <em>“A birth defect?” </em></p><p>Scáthán nods. <strong><em>“Now if you would give us a minute.” </em></strong>They both spread their wings and move them such that they act a curtain, blocking the, apparently female hatchling from my view. I catch one last glimpse of her before she disappears from my view. It looks like she knows something is going to happen to her and she looks deeply troubled.</p><p>My lower jaw starts shaking and I quietly whimper. The sight of her being so helpless and fearful reminds me of myself. <em>“What’s are they going to do to her?” </em>I ask my brother.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m no wise than you are Arya, but I’m sure our parents know what they are doing.” </em></strong>He sounds worried too but not as much.</p><p>I nod solemnly and look over at my parents again. <em>“Please be gentle with her…” </em></p><p>As if on command I hear another cry coming from the little dragon, then silence befalls the cave.</p><p>With every passing second my stress increases exponentially, then I hear a crunching sound, not like that of an egg breaking but rather bone. The baby dragon cries out in pain yet again.</p><p><em>“What are they doing to her?” </em>I almost want to jump up and check but Dorn places a paw on my thigh, looks up at me and shakes his head. <em>“He’s right, I would just get into a lot of trouble. I have to trust them, they know what they are doing.” </em></p><p>Since the fire had mostly gone out by now and the moonlight doesn’t illuminate the cave well either, it had gotten pretty dark, I’m almost surprised I can still see at all.</p><p>Another solid minute of silence follows, the anticipation of what might come next becoming nearly unbearable for me and my brother. Then I notice that a dim light blue glow is shining from between their wings. <em>“Looks like Skaftá is using magic, a lot judging by the looks it.” </em></p><p>The glow persists for almost a whole minute, then slowly dies down and as it’s about to fade completely they both slowly move their wings aside.</p><p>They reveal my sister looking no different than before, though she’s visibly shaking.</p><p>I hold my breath as I stare at her, waiting for her to try and take a step, I can sense that Dorn and our parents are doing the same.</p><p>She looks around, visibly scared and confused. She takes a while to move at all, probably afraid of trying to take a step but eventually she does, and her legs all look to be working normally.</p><p>I can feel hope rise within me. It seems to have all worked out fine.</p><p>The baby dragon takes a few more steps but is too exhausted to go much further and collapses soon after.</p><p>I look up to my parents, one question burning in my eyes. <em>“Can I go help her.” </em></p><p>They nod in unison. I carefully get up and slowly approach her. She doesn’t appear to be afraid of me but keeps closely watching my every movement.</p><p>Once I’m close enough, I kneel down and reach out to touch her snout, keeping my arm low and my palm facing upwards. She does the same, bringing her nose close to my hand and just before touching I see an emerald green spark jump from her to me. A jolt runs through my arm and I quickly pull it back, she too jumps a little but doesn’t appear to be hurt either.</p><p>Surprisingly I don’t feel a flood of memories rushing into my brain like I did with Dorn, but she doesn’t appear to be so lucky. Her eyes grow wide and she freezes.</p><p>After a few moments she catches her bearings again and looks up at me. <strong><em>“Hello Arya.” </em></strong>She sounds meek compared to her brother and I can sense her exhaustion and confusion over what happened.</p><p><strong><em>“Who are you?” </em></strong>She sounds like she can barely contain her curiosity.</p><p>I smile and reach out once more. <em>“I’m your big sister. Nice to meet you.” </em>She carefully extends her neck again and hesitates a moment before gently bumping her nose against my fingers. <strong><em>“Big sister…” </em></strong>She’s so tired and overwhelmed that her thoughts run slowly. <strong><em>“I’m hungry.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I can help you with that.” </em>I carefully step closer and gesture at my shoulders.</p><p>She carefully places one paw on my knee and pushes herself up to be able to get her paws onto my shoulders.</p><p>Once she’s gotten a grip on me, I grab her haunches and carefully lift her up. She’s much heavier than expected but I manage to slowly stand up. With great care to not drop her I carry her over to the pile of fish and slowly lower myself to my knees again, then just as carefully lower her hind legs to the ground.</p><p>She takes half a step backwards, then let’s go off my shoulders and takes another step back to drop herself onto all fours. She looks up at me and smiles with her head tilted a little. <strong><em>“Thank you, sister.” </em></strong>She lies down and pulls a fish from the pile with her mouth, then slowly starts munching away at it.</p><p>I pet her back and smile too. <em>“No problem sister.” </em>I look up from her to see Dorn sitting down next to her and pick out a fish as well. With them sitting so close to one another the size difference becomes very evident. He’s at least a thirty percent larger in just about every dimension. While she looks rather dainty and lean, he looks like beefcake next to her. I look over my shoulder, back at my parents. <em>“Well you can certainly tell where these two got their genes from.” </em></p><p>I turn my attention back at Dorn who’s all too happily tearing another fish apart. <em>“Already eating again?” </em>I ask him, slightly baffled at how he can fit this much food into his stomach.</p><p>He stops for a moment and turns his head. <strong><em>“Why yes, what’s so odd.” </em></strong>He says sheepishly.</p><p>I laugh quietly and shake my head. <em>“Nothing, you go and eat all you like. You need to grow big and strong after all.” </em>He responds with a quick nod and resumes eating.</p><p>I look down at my sister next to me, she’s still slowly nibbling away at her meal, though her mind feels much more content and less afraid now. <em>“I wonder what they did to her…” </em></p><p>I turn around and see that Scáthán had returned to his usual sleeping spot and Skaftá is walking towards me, carrying the other hatchling along.</p><p>She drops it off next to me and lies down close to the four of us, keeping an eye on all of us.</p><p>The brown dragon goes right for the fish, not really paying much attention to me. I’m not quite sure what to make of that but decide to not be bothered by it and instead focus my attention on my sister.</p><p>I watch her and Dorn eat through one fish after another, Dorn taking less than half the time to devour one than she does.</p><p>Dorn finishes eating rather quickly, not surprising seeing how he scarfed some of them down, but my sister keeps at it for some half an hour. <em>“Someone must have been very hungry.” </em>I think to myself as I move myself to Dorns side so we can lie together.</p><p>By now the pile of fish has been reduced rather drastically, I can almost count the remaining ones at a glance and I’m pretty sure the other hatchling will finish them off if he’s anywhere near as hungry as his sister.</p><p>Much to my surprise the brown dragon must have been quite a bit less hungry than his siblings as there’s still a handful left when it finishes eating. It lazily looks around and locks eyes with me for a moment. I can tell it’s pondering whether or not it should approach me and, in the end, decides against it, instead returning to Skaftá where it lies down to sleep.</p><p><em>“Interesting, it’s not nearly as curious about me as the other two were. Though I guess I kind of forced myself onto my sister.” </em>I turn around to see them both lying down, my sister too exhausted and tired to move much and Dorn just waiting for something to happen.</p><p>I consider carrying her back to Skaftá as well but seeing how she ate half her bodyweight in fish I won’t be able to lift her up. <em>“Can I just leave her here?” </em>I ask myself as I look down at her.</p><p>She suddenly turns her head and looks at me. <strong><em>“I’ll be fine, give me a few minutes and I’ll drag myself over there. You go to sleep.” </em></strong></p><p>She lazily stretches and slowly gets up. <em>“Alright then.” </em>I think to myself and look over at my brother. <em>“Feels like tonight it’ll be semi warm, I recon we can go sleep on our DIY mattress.” </em></p><p>Dorn nods and quickly gets up, we quickly walk over and lie down. He waits for me to be comfy before he crawls under the blanket and snuggles up to me. I wrap my arms around him and pull him a little closer, then shut my eyes. <em>“Oh, if you want to you can also go sleep beside your siblings.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“No, no, I’ll be fine staying with you.” </em></strong>He wraps his tail around my left leg, and I feel his head brush against mine.</p><p>I respond by rubbing my head against his and shifting around one last time before mentally preparing myself to drift off.</p><p>It doesn’t take long for me and my brother to doze off and find each other again in our dream world, interestingly the other two appear to be absent. I had thought that they would end up in the same dream world as us but in hindsight there’s no reason for them to be here.</p><p>Dorn and I find ourselves floating among the asteroids in the asteroid belt. The space rocks of varying sizes zipping past us like insects, many of them rather small by space standards though somewhere in the vast reaches of this region there will be some larger objects with a few even classified as dwarf planets. But we won’t go looking for them, the smaller asteroids make navigating this place much too hard. Besides, there’s something much more interesting waiting further into the solar system, Mars. Earths smaller brother that died an early death. <em>“I wonder if we could find the remnants of past exploration robots on there.” </em></p><p>We quickly leave the asteroid belt behind and soon the red planet comes into view, it indeed looks like a rusty ball of iron at first.</p><p>As we draw close some of its surface features become clear, namely the Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the solar system, by a long shot as well.</p><p>Since Mars is the first rocky planet since Pluto, we actually get to explore this one properly instead of just flying around its outside perimeter.</p><p>Still we fly a couple rounds around it to take a good look at its surface, it’s scarred with impact sites of hundreds of meteors and a few vast valleys stretch throughout it.</p><p>Interestingly enough, the north and south poles are covered in a thick layer of white ice, hinting at the fact that when this planet still had its magnetic field and atmosphere it could have been home to liquid oceans.</p><p>
  <em>“One wonders if there ever was something resembling basic life on our neighbour planet.” </em>
</p><p>Just before we proceed to land, I notice two dark spots passing between us and the sun, they must be the moons, Deimos and Phobos, comparatively tiny pieces of space rocks just a dozen miles or so across. Where they came from is uncertain, but they could very well be asteroids that Mars stole from the asteroid belt.</p><p>Moments later I feel Dorn land on the surface of the planet, shaking me up quite well as he stumbles to a halt in the dusty soil.</p><p>Once the orange cloud settles down again, I take a good look around, rust brown sand as far as my eyes can see. <em>“For how cool it looks from afar, it’s pretty bleak down here.” </em></p><p>Dorn wanders around the surface for a bit, each of his steps creating little clouds of dust behind us.</p><p>We climb through valleys and hills, through dunes of dust and craters, not entirely sure what we are looking for. All we find is dust and sand, nothing but orange and rust. For a bit it feels like we might start rusting as well.</p><p>Then, near the horizon I notice something breaking through the endless monotony. Dorn takes notice seconds later and we head over to it. As we draw closer, I notice that it’s one of the smaller Mars rovers, probably spirit by the looks of it. It stands on a slope, clear signs of the wheels spinning free around it and its solar panels angled away from the sun.</p><p>
  <em>“Ah I remember, this mission got cut off by it getting stuck in some soft sand. However, it still outlived its expectations by a long shot.” </em>
</p><p>I hope off Dorns back and almost miss my landing as I didn’t account for the much weaker gravity. Fortunately, even if I did fall it wouldn’t have hurt much. I walk up to the rover and dust off its solar panels and instruments. <em>“In the real world this thing has probably been ground to dust by the recurring storms that whip across this planet’s surface.” </em></p><p>For a moment I feel like an archaeologist uncovering some long-lost relic as I poke and prob at its instruments. While it all looks fragile at first, it’s surprisingly sturdy, no matter which part of the rover I shake, there’s no play in any of its parts. <em>“I didn’t expect any less.” </em></p><p>I look around the site where the rover got stuck, if the tracks were still here, we could go find the lander that brought it here, though that might be a bad plan as the nuclear power cell might still be dangerous. Dorn inspects the marvel of human engineering that lies before us as well.</p><p>I hop back onto his back. He doesn’t even need to lie down for me to get up there since the gravity here is so much weaker.</p><p>We head onwards, wondering what other hidden treasures this desert of a planet might hold for us.</p><p><em>“There’s at least two more rovers and many more landers to find, though again, the landers nuclear power cells may prove to be a problem. And I have no clue where the rovers are.” </em>I pause for a moment. <em>“Wait why do I worry about that? This is a dream. We can do whatever we want.” </em>I shake my head and laugh. <em>“Silly me.” </em></p><p>Getting tired of walking, Dorn decides to take off and fly along the surface instead. We manage to cover a lot of distance in little time and eventually a ginormous mountain peeks over the horizon. <em>“Ah we saw that one earlier, Olympus Mons.” </em>To our left the ground gradually drops off into some huge basin that covers a large part of the northern hemisphere while to our right the ground rises into a gigantic plateau and before us lies the giant of a mountain, or should I say volcano.</p><p>It only got to grow so big due to the absence of plate tectonics on Mars and over the next billions of years will probably be worn down again as all volcanic activity on Mars ceased ages ago when its core solidified.</p><p>As we approach it Dorn gradually rises further and further up as he tries to crest the gigantic cliff ahead of us. The cliff side alone is taller than most mountains on Earth.</p><p>It’s quite the sight to behold as we approach this wall of rock like a gigantic curtain it takes up the entire horizon before us and makes me and my brother feel rather small.</p><p>That impression immediately fades once we make it over the edge however. If I wouldn’t know any better, I would think we would be flying along some normal old plains, sans the vegetation obviously.</p><p>Only when looking back can I definitely tell that we’re up on a gigantic mountain.</p><p>Dorn heads straight to the apex of it, interestingly that isn’t the middle, nowhere near it in fact. It’s the edge of one biggest of the six nested calderas. He lands for just a moment and carefully walks along it, the ground almost giving way below his paws.</p><p>Then he jumps over the edge, into the caldera and glides along the ground. As with everything about this volcano, its caldera is just as extreme. Dropping down over two miles before reaching its bottom. We take a moment to appreciate just how huge this thing is, we can’t see anything but the sides of the caldera and eventually the sky above us, everything else about this planet lies hidden from us.</p><p>When it comes time to get back out of this literal hole Dorn decides to try climbing instead of flying and while it looks like it’s working just fine at first, as the slope gets steeper, he starts slipping and not for a lack of grip. The ground simply gives way under his weight and thus he’s eventually forced to take off and fly the rest of the distance.</p><p>The moment we make it over the edge again I’m almost as impressed as I was when I saw this planet’s surface for the first time. I had almost forgotten about how cool it looks from afar.</p><p>Dorn quickly flies towards the eastern edge of the volcano. From there we pass over a huge plateau that eventually turns into a depression with dozens of craters littered across it. Dorn turns slightly south and I realize where he’s headed, he’s going straight towards Opportunity. Arguably the most famous of the Mars rovers and the one that has travelled the furthest of them all, driving over twenty-eight miles (45km).</p><p>It takes some searching but eventually we find it, buried under a thick layer of dust just like Spirit.</p><p><em>“This one comes with a lot of sentimental values attached as well.” </em>I carefully clean its solar panels and Dorn helps me by blowing the Martian dust off of places I can’t get to.</p><p>We both take a step back to appreciate it in all its glory. <em>“They promised that we’ll be seeing you again and here we are.” </em></p><p>I smile weakly and tilt my head a little. <em>“Curious how people anthropomorphized this rover so much, it did have quite the journey to be fair. Only to be killed off by a dust storm. One wonders how much further it could have gone.” </em></p><p>I try to recall what I knew about the rover. <em>“Not much sadly, it was already starting to fail at this point so it would have only been a matter of time before something failed catastrophically.” </em></p><p>Dorn curiously sniffs and pokes at it, clearly admiring what human kind had achieved here.</p><p>We both take our time inspecting its mechanisms and tools, I even find some of the samples it had collected. <em>“The mind boggles at how much stuff they managed to cram into this thing and then ran it off of just these solar panels.” </em></p><p>Eventually it comes time to say goodbye and move onwards. We had seen a lot of Mars and still there was so much to explore but that’ll have to wait for another day.</p><p>I once again climb onto Dorns back and before he takes off, I look back at the rover one last time.</p><p>It’s the first semblance of humanity I had seen in these dreams. <em>“Good bye.” </em> I think to myself as Dorn leaps upwards and spreads his wings.</p><p>In just about a minute he has risen far enough to make the curvature of the planet visible and the ground below has turned back into a monochrome orange desert.</p><p>Within the next few minutes Mars quickly shrinks into an orange ball and then into just another dot among the stars.</p><p>While we drift through a vastly empty stretch of space I wonder if we should even bother visiting Earth, we’re already on that planet and can explore it during the day. All the other planets however shall remain off limits for ever.</p><p>As expected, the blue planet soon comes into view, however we both mostly ignore it outside from a casual glance at the Moon.</p><p>We quickly move on to the next planet closer to the sun, Venus.</p><p>While Mars isn’t habitable anymore it could very well have been billions of years ago, Venus not so much.</p><p>Its thick atmosphere is made of mostly Carbon dioxide and Nitrogen and while it’s less voluminous it’s still over ninety times as heavy as Earth’s.</p><p>And as if that wasn’t hostile enough the temperatures on its surface range from +800°F to -360°F (420 to -220°C) the side facing the sun getting hot enough to melt lead while the side facing away cooling down to the point where only a few gases stay gaseous.</p><p>On top of that it has rather pretty looking yellowy clouds hiding the planet’s surface. However their beauty is deceptive as they consist of sulphuric acid. They gain their yellow tint from the small amount of ferric chloride particles within them.</p><p>Probably the most curious thing about this planet is how similar to Earth it could have been billions of years ago, but then something happened, be it a comet impact or runaway greenhouse effect, turning it into this hostile hellscape.</p><p>We circle this yellow ball of agony for a while, Dorn clearly pondering if he wants to risk a dip into the inferno that awaits us in its atmosphere. After the disaster that was Uranus, he decides against it, which is probably a good idea.</p><p>Before we move on to the last planet, we both take note of the absence of moons, a rather peculiar thing as all other planets except Mercury have at least one.</p><p>While we fly closer towards the sun, I notice that Venus takes a lot longer to fade from our sight, probably because it reflects light so much better than any other planet. <em>“It is the morning star after all.” </em></p><p>I look back at it once again and it’s still clearly visible as a bright speck against the otherwise black sky. <em>“Hold up, there were more stars here previously.” </em>I look forward again and notice that the Sun had disappeared too. <em>“Oh, I must be waking up.” </em>I turn my head downward and notice that my brother has faded away too, now it’s just me floating through the darkness.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Change of Generation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I shut my eyes and lean back. When I open them again, I find myself staring at my brothers Scales.</p><p><em>“Is it morning already?” </em>I think to myself sleepily. <em>“Just five more minutes.” </em>I try to move but the muscles in my arms and abs complain strongly. I sharply inhale and wince. <em>“Bad idea, bad idea.” </em></p><p>I groan and force myself to stay still to not upset my sore muscles anymore.</p><p>Dorn sleepily stirs as he wakes up too. <strong><em>“Morning sister.” </em></strong>He says while heartily yawning and licking his chops. He blinks at me a couple times, then stretches and crawls out from under the blanket. He goes straight to the leftover fish and swallows them up in under a minute. <em>“Freaking glutton.” </em>I shake my head and smile. By now I can certainly tell where all the food is going though, comparing him to his freshly hatched self he has grown several inches in all directions. <em>“I’m surprised he’s not in constant agony from his bones growing. I remember my growth spurts all too well.” </em></p><p>Dorn crawls under the blanket once again and cosies up next to me. <strong><em>“This thing is great, keeps me warm quite nicely. Almost like my parents would.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“Humans had to get creative to keep warm in the olden days, after all we couldn’t rely on our bodies being literal furnaces or any sort of magic or fiery breath to keep us warm.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“But you used to have fur, didn’t you? Where did that go?” </em></strong>He rests his head such that he’s looking right at me.</p><p><em>“I think that started disappearing once we managed to build clothing that did a better job at keeping us warm than our fur did. Also, our fur only went so far to keep us warm when outside temperatures dropped into the negatives, unlike your kind who doesn’t appear to care about temperature in the slightest.” </em>I stare right back at him.</p><p><strong><em>“Interesting, I would have thought you would just grow denser fur or something.” </em></strong>He yawns once again, letting me stare right into his throat.</p><p>He drowsily smacks his lips and slowly crawls out from under the blanket, dragging it off me in the process. <em>“Hey.” </em>I grab the seam of it and pull it pull it over me again. He turns his head a looks down at me <strong><em>“Oops.” </em></strong>He mutters in his thoughts</p><p>Dorn is suddenly pushed backwards and side, almost falling over. I flinch and instinctively hide under the blanket. I can hear him growl outside but there’s another growl in there as well.</p><p>I cautiously stick my head out again and see brown coloured sibling trying to push him over.</p><p>The two of them stand on their hind legs, front paws intertwined and their heads just inches apart, snarling at another with a low growl emanating from them.</p><p>While they sound like they’re fighting to the death my brothers’ mind makes it pretty evident that they’re merely playing.</p><p><em>“Allllright.” </em>I crawl backwards to get as far away as I can. I really don’t want to get in between them right now.</p><p>It looks like it’s going to be a tie between them but then Dorns scowl turns into a grin and he shoves his sibling to the side and onto his back. It yelps and squirms as it falls over.</p><p>Dorn grins widely and drops to all fours, rather content with his victory. Then moves to help his sibling back onto his legs. It immediately tries to take another swipe at him, but Dorn stares him down with a burning glare, making it back down.</p><p>I can feel the two of them talking to one another, I can quite tell what about, but they flounce over to our father who had apparently been watching them before. I also spot my sister lying at his feet, she looks awake but is probably still recovering from the strains of yesterday. The two of them sit down a few feet away from our fathers’ head. <em>“I wonder what they’re doing now.” </em>I grab my blanket and wrap it around me before walking over to the four of them. As I get up, I feel my legs complain. I grimace and stop for a moment. <em>“I wonder when I’ll stop having sore muscles all the time.” </em>I force myself to take another step. <em>“Though it’s not as bad as it probably should be. Interesting.” </em>I take the last few steps to get over to my siblings while ignoring the ache in my thighs.</p><p>Dorn notices me approaching first and moves aside for me to sit next to him, between him and his sister.</p><p>Scáthán looks over to me and smiles. <strong><em>“Good morning little one, good to see you. I have something we need to do.” </em></strong>I tilt my head wrinkle my forehead. <strong><em>“Remember the spell we put on you to protect you from Dorn? I’ll extend it to include your other siblings but also Skaftá and me, we should have included ourselves from the get-go.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“That would be very much appreciated, I’ll feel a lot safer. Though I didn’t really feel in danger around either you or Skaftá. I trust you two to not hurt me.” </em>
</p><p>He smiles warmly. <strong><em>“Thanks for trusting us. Now, then shall we?” </em></strong>He lifts his head off the ground and moves it closer and stares me down. <em>“A-alright.” </em>I feel quite intimidated by him staring at me so intently but I remind myself that there’s nothing to worry about.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“And that’s perfectly fine. This is something we can all work on. We can make sure to be more careful and you can slowly build your trust into us to a point where you won’t freak out.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod earnestly and smile. <em>“Indeed, I’m looking forward to the day I can be free of my angst and fear.” </em>I lean my head back to stare at the ceiling and dwell on the thoughts all the things we could do then. <em>“Alas, it’ll be a while.” </em>I drop my head back down and look at Scáthán again. <em>“Anyway, since the four of you gathered like this, I assume there’s some kind of plan for today?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Kind of. Skaftá is still exhausted from yesterday so we won’t be going out today most likely. I’ll keep watch over the little ones and you’re free to do whatever. We sadly can’t bring you anywhere though, so you’ll be confined to this cave.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“That sounds fine to me. I’ll probably use today to get a better grip on my mind then. If you need anything from me don’t hesitate to ask.” </em>I pat Dorns head quickly and get up to let the four of them do whatever it is that Scáthán has planned for them.</p><p>I settle down at Skaftás feet. She appears to notice without even opening her eyes as she moves her head close to me loosely puts her tail around my waist. I smile and gently rub the scales at the tip of her snout. <em>“Don’t worry about me. Just keep sleeping and recovering.” </em>I get myself comfortable and shut my eyes. <em>“Alright, let’s do this.” </em>I wait a moment for my thoughts to settle down and then open my eyes again. I immediately start trying to zone out and even though I’m feeling rather alert it only takes me some five minutes to make my vision go blurry and have a blue blob appear in my vision. I nod slowly and avert my eyes from Skaftás mind. I wouldn’t want to disturb her in her sleep. Instead I look past her and watch my siblings’ minds from afar. The two freshly hatched ones match their scales in colour as well. <em>“Interesting, only Scáthán is the odd one out with his yellow coloured mind. Wonder why that is.” </em>When my attention returns to the real world, I notice that the blobs have disappeared. <em>“Damn it.” </em>I sigh and try to zone out once again.</p><p>Over the course of the next few hours I manage to stay zoned out for the largest part of it. Only occasionally a thought breaks me out of my trance. Whilst I’m zoned I out I don’t try out anything new, only attempting to keep it up as long as I can.</p><p>Fortunately, the few times I do slip it’s not long before I drift off again, only a handful minutes usually.</p><p>During my time zoned out, I mostly idly stare in the general direction of my siblings, though never directing my attention at any of them. Interestingly this also makes it so that my mind keeps to itself, I never notice anything branching out from me even when I stay zoned out for what must be nearly an hour.</p><p>Things are going swimmingly for quite a while but around noon I notice a headache spreading through my head. <em>“Well, time for a break I guess.” </em>I shut my eyes and shake my head, for a moment the pain gets worse but then quickly fades back again.</p><p>I look around to see nothing has really changed, my siblings are all lying in a half circle around Scátháns head and he appears to be showing them how to use their minds based on what I could see when I was zoned out.</p><p>My eyes wander to my feet and as I’m staring at the ground next to my feet, I notice a huge blue eye staring at me. I lock eyes with Skaftá and after a moment of staring ask:<em> “What’s the matter?” </em></p><p>She smiles weakly and blinks slowly. <strong><em>“Nothing much, I was just watching you. I know I’m repeating myself here, but I admire how quickly you’re making progress.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I’m flattered.” </em>I wave her compliments away. <em>“But I still feel like I’m not getting good fast enough. I just wish I could get to the point where I can do all this passively.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Patience young grasshopper. You don’t master anything in a day, or a week even.” </em></strong>She smiles at me. I answer her with a slow nod and slight smile. <em>“You’re right but I almost feel pressured to go faster because there’s so much I want to learn. Because once I get a good grasp on my mind, I also want to learn how to use magic and so much more.” </em></p><p>I can sense her laugh internally and an almost giggle like sound comes from her throat. <strong><em>“It’s great that you kept your thirst for knowledge. Don’t rush yourself too much though, lest you burn out and lose your enjoyment for it.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I guess you’re right.” </em>I let my eyes wander once again and notice that the brown dragon is about to pounce onto his sister. <em>“Watch out.” </em>She turns her head towards me then towards her brother who was just about to leap at her. She hops aside, making him almost stumble over his feet as he jumps at nothing. He looks around, having lost track of his sister and she uses her chance to in turn jump at him. However, she overshoots and ends up landing across his shoulders like a scarf. Both are now scrambling to get off or out from under the other, leaving them as a mess of limbs.</p><p>Dorn is watching from the sideline, clearly just as amused as I am. The moment the two of them regain some semblance of control Dorn is quick to jump into the fray, leaving the two of them scrambling yet again as he messes with both of them. With a wide smile on my face I shake my head and sigh. <em>“Fun times lie ahead, I can already see me ending up in the middle of them… Not that I mind too much.” </em>I take another look at the skirmish ahead of me, it appears none of them are too afraid to use their claws and teeth to immobilize the other. <em>“Thank fuck for that protective spell. I’d be a bloody mess within seconds…” </em>As I watch them continue play fighting a thought crosses my mind. <em>“I wonder if they’ve decided on a name for them yet.” </em></p><p>Before I can even look at Skaftá she already answers me. <strong><em>“We have.” </em></strong>She lifts her head and turns her head towards the three of them. <strong><em>“We picked a name for all of them a while ago. For the one with green scales we settled on Coille and the brown one we named Aonar.” </em></strong> I can feel her being quite proud of the little ones. <em>“Oh, those names sound really cool. Did you also have a name picked for Dorn? He kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, now doesn’t he?” </em>I focus my attention on the green one. <em>“Coille and…” </em>I turn my eyes towards the brown dragon. <em>“…Aonar.” </em></p><p>I look up at her again, she’s still fixated on her offspring.</p><p>She slowly turns her head and looks down at me. <strong><em>“Don’t worry about how the name you gave him sounds like in relation to what we chose. His name is perfectly fine just like the ones we chose. And yes, we did pick a name for him it was Droigheann.” </em></strong></p><p>I giggle and a grin spreads across my lips. <em>“I can tell you like going for a certain style of names. It sounds really fitting though. But I’m glad you accept the name I gave him just as well.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“How could we object? What you two share is something special. I can’t quite put my claw on it but there’s something. I’m sure the two of you are destined for greatness.” </em></strong> Her eyes shift to glance at Dorn, then move back to me. <em>“I still don’t quite get what’s so special. I too can tell he behaved different when he hatched but that could just as well be him being curious.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“That’s what we thought at first too, but there’s something else as well. It could very well be that dragons below a certain age for different bonds with humans than older ones but that’s really grasping at straws. We simply have too few examples to go of off.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“You’ve told me about that before if memory serves me right. I wonder if there’s another human out there, still alive, living alongside some dragon.” </em>I look at her, half expecting a positive answer.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I don’t know. I haven’t heard of any in a while.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“What kind of while are we talking about? Twenty years or two hundred?” </em>I tilt my head slightly.</p><p><strong><em>“About seven hundred years, I think. And while being around dragons extends your life expectancy a bunch, I’m also pretty sure it won’t make you live that long.” </em></strong>She rests her head on the floor again.</p><p><em>“Seven hundred years… Yea that guy or girl is long dead probably.” </em>I feel a little sad I won’t ever get to know anyone who had a similar fate to me. <em>“I guess I have to hope someone else ends up being as fortunate as me.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Don’t get your hopes up too much though. It is rare that we deem a human worthy of keeping. Not because we don’t want to but rather because we have to remain hidden from your kind. Adopting too many of you could easily put us into jeopardy. </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“I forget. Living with you things are so nice and calm. Makes it easy to ignore the fact that if humans knew you existed this would likely look very different.” </em>
</p><p>I can sense her agreement. <em>“Oh well. Doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll be here by your side till the day I die. I have nothing to go back for.” </em>For just a moment a wave of sadness overcomes me, but it quickly disappears as I bring up some of the less bad memories.</p><p>Skaftá rubs her head against me, slightly squishing me between her head, her side and the floor. <strong><em>“You needn’t be sad. You’ve got us and we’ve got you. That’s all we’ll need.” </em></strong></p><p>Her words put a smile on my face and let me forget about being alone. <em>“You’re right, what else do I need.” </em>I pet her head and rest my head on hers.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Water, you should make sure to drink some today. You haven’t had much.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I laugh and grin. <em>“You’re correct.” </em>I gently push her head away from me. <em>“Would you let me?” </em></p><p>Skaftá moves her head aside just enough for me to get up and leave. I quickly grab me a fresh bottle of water from the box and head back to where I was sitting.</p><p>Once I sat down and had a sip, I look for my siblings again. They’re still busy playing, though it looks like the two younger ones teamed up on Dorn and he’s struggling to keep up with them.</p><p>Skaftá and I keep watching them and for a little bit I doze off, only to wake up a few moments later as my chin dropping onto my chest.</p><p>With my mind in this hazy, half asleep state, I figure I best keep exercising my mental shenanigans.</p><p>I get comfortable and start my usual spiel of zoning out.</p><p>Curiously I manage to get another few hours in before I notice a headache setting up shop in my head again. <em>“It appears I’m very much getting used to this. Very good.” </em>I take another hearty sip of water and look around for my siblings yet again. They all lie in a pile, Dorn at the bottom of it, pretty clearly exhausted from messing around for just about the entire day.</p><p>They still occasionally try to mess with one another but the lack of energy in their movements makes it look like they’re playing in slow motion.</p><p>Dorn notices me watching and lazily raises his head. <strong><em>“Why don’t you come join us, you’ve sat on your behind all day.” </em></strong>I laugh internally and get up. <em>“Alright, you asked for it.” </em>With all three of them being tired out I don’t worry about what might happen to me, I actually feel confident I can hold my own. As I approach Coille takes note of me first, lazily nodding my way and surprisingly Aonar also takes interest in me for the first time. He pushes himself up off Dorns back and extends his neck my way, sniffing the air as I approach him. I bend my knees to appear smaller and generally try to not come off as threatening.</p><p>He tilts his head a little and looks at me with curiosity in his eyes. I carefully extend my arm and just before I touch him a little spark jumps between us. I don’t even flinch anymore when I feel the jolt and the flood of memories stays absent entirely. Aonar, however reacts similarly to how his sister did. His eyes grow wide and he freezes for a moment.</p><p>I can sense a dozen emotions run through his head all at once as he stares at me wide eyed. I smile and gently pet his head. <em>“Hello there.” </em>He looks unsure of what to do with all these memories and this new voice in his head. He remains frozen for a moment longer. <strong><em>“H-hello? You’re my big sister, right?” </em></strong>He doesn’t quite know what to make of me petting him quite yet. The sensation feels unusual to him but he’s not against it.</p><p>I nod quickly. <em>“Indeed. Though I look nothing like you or your siblings I’m some twenty years older than you.” </em>Aonar lies back down but keeps his eyes on me. <strong><em>“I somehow imagined you to be… bigger?” </em></strong>I sit down next to my brother and lean against him and Coille. <em>“We humans are puny compared to you, just look at your parents. They tower above any human there ever was. Hell, they’re taller than those things we call houses. I could probably live inside them if I wanted to.” </em></p><p>I conjure a mental image of a steel dragon, hollow on the inside, with a door in the side of its belly and windows for its eyes.</p><p>Dorn is just as amused by the picture of that as I am and joins my giggles with his own off sounding laugh.</p><p>I can sense that Aonar finds the idea rather strange but isn’t really bothered by it. <em>“He’s more of a practical of one huh. Oh well.” </em>We relax for a while, lying as the chaotic pile of bodies.</p><p>After some time, I notice that Coille and Aonar are starting to move more, as if they were itching for more playtime. <em>Oh boy, this is going to be fun.” </em>I say to myself as I mentally prepare to be thrown all over the place while fighting a losing fight. <strong><em>“Don’t worry sister I’ll back you up. I’m sure the two of us can best them.” </em></strong></p><p>Moments later I feel Aonar swat at my shoulder, just hard enough to not be an attempt to get my attention but not hard enough to be an actual threat.</p><p><em>“If I stand up now, he’ll topple me immediately.” </em>I decide to instead turn around, keeping my knees on the ground and try to grab his front legs. I catch one of his front paws as he tries to swipe at me again and quickly grab the other one before he can react. I then pull them up into the air forcing him onto his hind legs. He tries to bite me but notices that the spell keeps him from doing much more than squeeze my arm and he can’t get at anything else. Suddenly, he throws his entire body weight to the right and nearly pulls me over with him  </p><p>Before he pulls me down with him, I let go and watch him slowly fall backwards. He lands on his back and struggles to get back up. <em>“This is my chance.” </em></p><p>I hop over Dorn and sit down on top of Aonar, then I grab his front paws and pin his neck to the ground my shin. For a moment he tries to get at me with his hind legs, but they just barely don’t reach.</p><p>I grin smugly and stare him down. First time I managed to overpower any dragon, even if he’s just a day old and a fair bit weaker than Dorn.</p><p>My victory isn’t long lived though as Coille uses my distraction to jump into my side and knock me off of her brother. I try to shove her off but she’s so agile that she avoids my grasp and too heavy for me to get out from under her easily. While I struggle with her Aonar manages to get back on all fours and immediately joins his sister in keeping me down. Now it’s them who get to wear a victorious grin as I squirm under them. <em>“Fucks sake.” </em></p><p>Coille even feels comfortable enough to outright lie down and get comfortable on me. <em>“Looks like I’m not getting out from under them any time soon.” </em>I give up struggling and stare at the ceiling. <em>“What happened to Dorn saying he’d help me anyway?” </em>As if to answer my question I notice Dorn get up. <strong><em>“I was merely waiting for you all to settle down.” </em></strong>The other two quickly turn their heads to face him but it’s already too late as he jumps at Aonar, pushing him off me and leaving him to tumble over the ground. He spins around and growls at Coille. She hesitates for a moment and looks over to Aonar, who’s currently trying to figure out where up and down is. She decides it’s not worth the fight and quickly gets off me.</p><p>I sit up and pat the dust out of my clothes. <em>“Thank you very muc-“ </em>Dorn climbs onto my lap and leans against my torso with enough force to push me back to the ground. He curls up on top of me with his head looking down at me. <em>“Asshole.” </em>I grab his shoulders and try to shove him off, but he simply goes limp like a wet noodle, making it nigh impossible for me to move him. I shoot him a burning glare and growl quietly. <em>“Very helpful.” </em>Dorn gives me a smug grin and shifts around a little to get comfortable. I groan as he suddenly puts a lot of his weight onto my ribcage. The spell protects me from his claws but not against his sheer weight. <em>“Get off, get off, get off.” </em>The feeling of my ribs nearly giving way fills me with panic and I once more try to shove him off, much more violently this time. Fortunately, he can sense my distress and quickly gets off me. Dorn and Coille look rather concerned while Aonar is mostly confused as to why I panicked. Coille is quick to run up to me and brush her head and neck against my shoulder while looking up at me. <strong><em>“What’s wrong sister?” </em></strong>She asks.</p><p>I take a deep breath and sigh while feeling my ribs to make sure they didn’t break. <em>“Nothing, Dorn is just getting too heavy to lie on me with his fully body.” </em>I stretch and sigh a sigh of relief when I feel nothing out of the ordinary. I notice that Dorn is feeling rather sad now, I raise my head to look at him and beckon him over for some more snuggling. <em>“Doesn’t mean you can’t lie on me at all though, just keep your paws on the ground and not put your full weight onto me.” </em>He carefully approaches me and pushes himself against me, though not strongly enough to push me over. Dorn waits until I lie down to oh so carefully lie down as well.</p><p>He places his front paws just above my shoulders and his haunches next to my hip and then rests himself on my torso. He still feels rather heavy but at least it’s bearable. He turns his neck such that his head ends up next to mine and nuzzles it against mine. <strong><em>“Sorry sister, I didn’t mean to.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I know you didn’t.” </em>I awkwardly move my arm to pet his head, then gesture the other two over as well.</p><p>Coille is quick to join us, lying down to my left and resting her head next to Dorns, Aonar takes a little longer, then lies down to my right. He places his head on top of the other two, I can sense their minor annoyance and Dorn even lightly smacks him with one paw though Aonar doesn’t budge.</p><p>Dorn grumbles something and I can sense his annoyance, but he figures it’s not worth starting something right now.</p><p>Since things have calmed down again, I pull my arms out from between me and the dragons and begin petting Coille and Aonar. She quite enjoys it, making something of a happy noise while Aonar stays silent and his mind feels like he isn’t too fussed about it.</p><p><strong><em>“And what about me?” </em></strong>I hear Dorn complain to me. <em>“Well I only have two arms you know, and you’ve had plenty of pets already your two siblings don’t even know what that is yet.” </em></p><p>He growls quietly and I can sense him thinking hard about what to say. <strong><em>“Alright.” </em></strong></p><p>I know he wants to complain but can’t get himself to do so. <em>“When it’s bed time you’ll get all the pets you want, I promise. Besides isn’t snuggling like this pretty good as well?” </em>I turn my head and smile at him.</p><p>He answers with a grin and I notice that he’s up to no good. <strong><em>“Well, I’ll make sure you keep that promise. It’s not like you can get out from under me.” </em></strong>I roll my eyes and sigh. <em>“Scáthán, Dorn is trying to bully me again.” </em>I turn my head towards him and give him a wink.</p><p>He had been almost dozing off before and sleepily raises his head. <strong><em>“I really don’t want to get up right now.” </em></strong>He winks back at me. <strong><em>“But, Dorn, be nice to your sister, you won’t enjoy it if you aren’t” </em></strong>I can sense him sending Dorn some mental images and they shut my brother right up.</p><p>The four of us stay as this pile of bodies for quite a while, the only movement coming from me petting my siblings.</p><p>Around the late afternoon hours Scáthán suddenly gets up and makes his way to the exit. <strong><em>“I’ll be headed out to gather some food. Arya and Dorn, you two are coming with me. Coille and Aonar, you two stay put and don’t try anything I wouldn’t.” </em></strong>We all slowly raise and turn out heads to look at him. <em>“But why now? What for?” </em>I’m the first to ask but I can sense my siblings thinking the same.</p><p>Scáthán stretches and yawns. <strong><em>“I’ll need to catch us something to eat and Dorn can get in some flying exercise.” </em></strong></p><p>Dorn takes his sweet time to get off me and the other two don’t even move to begin with. Before I get up, I pat Coille one last time, she gives an appreciative smile and blinks slowly.</p><p><em>“Alright, ready whenever you are.” </em>I say as I pat the dust out of my clothes again. I once again notice the holes in it and that it’s getting dirty in general. <em>“I’ll see how much I can clean this up and change into something fresh tomorrow.” </em></p><p>Scáthán quickly grabs me with his tail and lifts me onto his back, in the meantime Dorn takes a running start and flies up onto his father’s back, landing just in front of me.</p><p>He crawls up to Scátháns neck and I follow him. Our father makes his way out the cave and once he’s waded out some hundred odd feet, the water barely reaching his knees, he prepares to take off.</p><p>Dorn and I cling to his neck as much as we can as he leaps into the air and spreads his wings.</p><p>In a matter of seconds, he reaches the top of the cliff and lands quite some distance further inland.</p><p>My brother immediately hops off Scátháns back and glides to the ground while he lifts me off his back and gently places me on the grass as well. Dorn does not waste a single second to start running and taking off. He manages to fly a rather wide circle around me and dad while maintaining his altitude. I keep watching him glide in circles for a while, fascinated by how he already knows how to fly. Even birds take much longer to learn this.</p><p>Since he’s small compared to his parents he can glide at a much slower speed than them, it almost looks like I can keep up with him.</p><p>I shut my eyes for a moment to listen in one Dorn and Scátháns mind. It seems dad is teaching how he can tilt his body to alter his path and how to angle his wings to rise or fall slightly.</p><p>Dorn is eagerly listening while mostly keeping his circular path around us.</p><p>I open my eyes again and see my brother dart past me. I decide to stay put and watch for the time being.</p><p>
  <em>“While I might have missed him taking off for the first time it’s still awesome to watch him learn and improve.” </em>
</p><p>He continues going in circles around me and dad for a while longer, then turns towards a group trees standing halfway between us and the horizon.</p><p>As he flies towards them, he tries to rise as high as he can. He flaps his wings with all his might and at a frequency that looks more akin to a bird than what I’m used to from our parents. It also looks like he’s trying to push off the air with his feet similar to how he would paddle about while swimming. <em>“How adorable, you can tell he was taught how to swim first and is now treating flying the same.” </em></p><p>He quickly reaches a height of almost three hundred feet (100m) but during his ascent he had lost a good bit of his speed. Dorn struggles to keep rising and tries to enter a steady glide but he’s too slow to enter a glide and instead starts falling. I feel my eyes grow wide as I subconsciously hold my breath. <em>“Oh no.” </em>He tries to stabilize himself by flapping his wings, but it only makes it worse, making him lose control entirely and sending him tumbling towards the ground.</p><p>Without wasting another second, I break out into a full sprint, trying to catch him before he hits the ground. My eyes are fixated on him as he falls. It looks like I might just barely make it.</p><p>He falls below a hundred fifty feet (45m), below a hundred feet (30m), below fifty feet (15m), it looks like I might not make it. <em>“I can’t catch him, not like this.” </em>Without thinking any more about it I jump, trying to throw myself under him to dampen his impact.</p><p>I leap forward, close my eyes and brace myself for the impact. I feel rocks and other debris cutting into my shoulder as I skid through the wet grass and eventually come to a halt.</p><p>I lie completely still, waiting for Dorn to land on me but nothing happens.</p><p><em>“Did I miss?” </em>I keep holding my breath. <em>“I didn’t hear an impact.” </em>I carefully open my eyes just wide enough to see a blurry picture.</p><p>I’m surprised to see the outline of my brother hovering just inches(~5cm) above me, suspended in the air by a magic force. I open my eyes fully and find myself staring into his eyes. He looks just as surprised as I am. <em>“Wha-?” </em>Before I can finish my thought the magic force disappears and lets him fall onto me. Even from this little height I get the air knocked out of me and reflexively curl up.</p><p>I gasp for air and feel my brother cling to me for dear life, he also appears to be shaking a lot.</p><p>Once I get my bearings again and realize that everything is fine, I hug my brother and pat his back.<em> “Everything is okay, you’re safe.” </em>I smile at him, happy that we’re both safe. <em>“Though I wonder what caught him. Was it Scáthán?”</em></p><p>Dorn takes a while to find his bearings again and get off me. I sit up and look down my shirt and pants, they’re all covered in mud, grass and debris. From where I sit a ten-foot (3m) line of flattened and torn up grass extends. <em>“Welp.” </em>I raise my head further and notice Scáthán looking our way.</p><p><strong><em>“Next time he falls, please stay put Arya. I appreciate that you tried to catch him, but his momentum would have seriously hurt you.” </em></strong>I didn’t expect him to scold me like this. <em>“But…I…” </em>I remember what him landing on me from just a few inches (5cm) did to me. <em>“You’re right…I would have been injured or worse.” </em>I look down and sigh.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry about it too much Arya. Use this as a chance to learn.” </em></strong>He sounds completely calm, not upset in the slightest. I expected him to be quite angry with me, like everyone had always been with me when I made mistakes.</p><p>I get up and try to wipe the dirt off me, but a lot already got absorbed into my clothes. <em>“Oh great, guess we have to head back now.” </em>I sigh and slouch over while shaking my head. <em>“Good job Arya.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“We won’t need to go back, there’s a stream near that group of trees, you can clean yourself there.” </em></strong>I turn around and eye the trees in the distance. <em>“Convenient.” </em></p><p>I look to my right to see how Dorn is doing. He still looks a little shook but is mostly fine by now. <strong><em>“Thank you for trying to save me sister.” </em></strong>He looks up at me and smiles.</p><p>Scáthán catches up with us and nods towards the little grove. <strong><em>“Let’s get going, you’ll get cold soon Arya.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod and start marching on, Dorn prepares to take off once more and a second later I see him sprint past me and with one swift leap he spreads his wings and flies off towards the horizon, this time keeping his altitude in check.</p><p>Scáthán walks by my side, keeping me in his slipstream to prevent the wind from making me freeze too much. We both watch Dorn fly as we walk, he nearly loses control a few more times but manages to recover each time. I still feel the urge to run over and try to catch him but both, Scátháns glare burning in the back of my head and the memories of what happened last time, make me stay put.</p><p>Surprisingly the grove is much further away than I expected, and it takes us a good twenty minutes of walking to get there. Even though dad protects me from the wind I’m starting to get cold before we even made it halfway there. <em>“I’m so lucky to have him around, he’ll be able to warm me up with magic once I took a bath.” </em></p><p>As we draw close Dorn disappears into the canopy and stays hidden from my view, I can still sense him but can’t quite make out where he is. Once I and Scáthán walk into the shade of the trees I hear some rustling above us. <em>“What is he up to now?” </em>I turn my head to try and see him or at least the movement in the trees he causes.</p><p>Just as I notice some wiggling branches he jumps out from his cover and lands right at my feet, growling and playfully pawing at my legs. Taken by surprise, I jump back and bump into Scátháns leg, almost slipping as I didn’t anticipate the sudden stop. Dorn suddenly turns and sprints off into the trees. <em>“What the hell was that for?” </em>I look at where he just stood a second ago, flabbergasted. <strong><em>“I’m pretty sure that was an invitation to chase him.” </em></strong>Scáthán gently pushes me in the direction he ran off to. <strong><em>“Go get him, I’ll be following you two.” </em></strong></p><p>I look ahead and notice that the trees get too dense for him to make it through. <em>“I see, alright. See you.” </em>I run off into the grove, looking for my brother.</p><p>Since the grove only consists of a few dozen trees it’s not long before I run out the other end of it in another grassland. I slow down and look behind me for a moment, I hadn’t seen or heard my brother back there, but he couldn’t possibly hide out here in the grass. I look around and notice a path of trampled grass, my eyes follow it until it comes to a sudden stop. I narrow my eyes and look at the ground to check the height of the grass. It almost reaches my knees, if Dorn tried, he could feasibly hide in it. When I turn my attention to the trampled grass again, I notice that the end of it had moved a little. <em>“Gotcha.” </em>I run as fast as I can, and he appears to be running away from me.</p><p>I can’t quite seem to catch up to him, he always stays some distance ahead of me, and not letting me get an actual sightline on him.</p><p>Before long I’m fully engrossed in chasing him, he tries some sharp turns to lose me, but I manage to stay hot on his tail. Fortunately, all the running is also keeping me from freezing too much.</p><p>Soon he begins crossing his old paths, even running along them for a bit before running into fresh grass again to confuse me and a few times it does work, and I have to stop for a moment to find him again.</p><p>As we get further and further away from the trees, I notice the ground getting progressively wetter, to the point where slipping becomes a very real issue for me. <em>“Must be because of the nearby stream I guess.”</em></p><p>Eventually, as I’m running after him and he does another one of his sharp turns, I can’t quite keep up and keep going straight a little longer. I end up running out of the grass onto a bunch of gravel, a stream some dozen feet (4m) wide flowing just ahead of me. <em>“Guess I found the stream.” </em>I turn around to try and spot Dorns tracks but can’t, there’s no movement in the grass. Not surprising seeing how we left a maze of tracks behind us he probably has an easy time getting around without me seeing him.</p><p><em>“Crap…” </em>I let my eyes wander left to right, hoping to find any signs of my brother but I find nothing.</p><p>Turns out I didn’t need to look for him though, as he suddenly leaps out of the grass in front of me.</p><p>I instinctively take a big step back and end up nearly slipping on the wet rocks as I step into the stream. I inhale sharply and flail my arms in an attempt to keep my balance.</p><p>Dorn comes closer to me and gets up on his hind legs, then extends one paw towards me, intent on pushing me over before I can do anything. <em>“Don’t you dare.” </em>I try to take a step back but my foot catches on one of the larger rocks sitting in the river bed, sending me falling straight into the water.</p><p>“Gah.” I exclaim and with a splash I hit the water. I feel goose bumps form all over my body as soon as the cold water touches me.</p><p>I somehow don’t hit my head on anything, and the water is shallow enough for me to sit in it.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t I dare what? I didn’t touch you.” </em></strong>He grins smugly and hops onto the rock that I just fell over.</p><p> </p><p>I growl at him and splash water at him with both hands. He tries to dodge it by jumping aside but is too slow. Dorn lands on a rock in the middle of the stream and shakes the water off. He’s just about to jump at me from his perch when Scáthán interrupts us. <strong><em>“Enough messing around for now, let your sister wash herself. We have things to do.” </em></strong>I feel his shadow fall onto me and when I look over to my left, I see him standing right next to the bank of the river. <em>“How could he sneak up on us like that? I didn’t see him at all while we were chasing one another.” </em>Dorn jumps over to his father, spreading his wings to extend his jump a little.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t think too hard about not noticing me approaching, it’s pretty interesting how unaware of your surroundings you are when you’re focused on something.” </em></strong>I nod slowly and stand up as my legs are getting rather cold. <em>“Alright. I do tend to lose track of my surroundings… Good thing none of you have any malicious intent.” </em>Scáthán smiles and nods, then turns away and walks off with my brother. <strong><em>“You go wash yourself and your clothes. We’ll be nearby, if anything happens just call for us. We’ll be right there.” </em></strong>I watch them leave and once they’re quite some distance away I finally turn m attention towards the river once again. For a moment I close my eyes and try to sense their minds, just to make sure that I could reach them. Dorns mind is rather faint but Scátháns still feels pretty close.</p><p><em>“Time to get going.” </em>I look around once more to make sure I’m actually alone, then strip off my shirt, shoes and jeans. I drape them over my arm and sit down on a rock, placing my clothes over my lap.</p><p>A breeze blows through the meadow, making shiver. <em>“Better hurry before I catch a cold or worse.” </em>I grab my shirt and begin washing it in the crystal-clear waters, streaks of muddy water washing out of it. Once I consider it sufficiently clean, I throw it aside onto another rock and start washing my jeans. They take a fair bit longer to become even remotely clean, mostly due to their thicker fabric absorbing a lot more dirt.</p><p>Eventually though, I’m satisfied and put it aside as well, leaving me with just my socks and shoes.</p><p>I eye them for a moment, it’ll be a while before they dry, and I can tell that they’re getting to the end of their life. <em>“They served me well.” </em>I can’t keep myself from feeling a little sentimental.</p><p>I dunk them into the stream as well and proceed to clean them as best as I can. All the dirt and abuse they’ve suffered left its stains on them.</p><p>With most of my clothes clean I wonder if I should go take care of my underwear as well. <em>“I probably should…” </em>I look down myself and mentally brace myself but no matter how much I try to stay calm, panic still takes over. I can’t get myself to strip completely naked.</p><p><em>“Okay, okay, calm down Arya. You don’t need to take these off. Just keep them on you and take a bath. That’ll have to do.” </em>I push myself off the rock and into the water, I already knew it would be cold but this time I’m much more aware of just how cold it is. I inhale sharply as the cold-water stings against my legs but force myself to keep going.</p><p>Once I’m sitting in the stream, the water just above my hips, I take a moment to get used to the temperature. The water can’t be any warmer than 50°F (10°C) and I realize that I haven’t been able to feel my feet ever since Dorn and Dad left.</p><p><em>“Better hurry…” </em>I take a deep breath and let the rest of my body slider under water as well. I can feel my muscles tense up as the cold-water washes over me and I clench my teeth so hard they might just shatter.</p><p>I hold my breath and bring my head under water as well, by now my skin feels like it is burning and I can barely feel the rocks at the bottom, somehow, I manage to stick it out until I run out of breath and quickly jump out of the water, gasping for air and shivering.</p><p><em>“Oh fuck, this might not have been the best idea.” </em>My teeth chatter with cold and I quickly wipe as much water as I can off me. Still, the remaining dampness makes the surrounding air feel like ice and I can feel my whole body go numb. I quickly get out of the water and cower down next to the grass to seek some shelter from the wind <em>“Help.” </em>I think to myself while direction my attention at Scáthán.</p><p>Immediately, his presence in my head grows stronger and I hear him faintly say: <strong><em>“Give me one minute and I’ll be there.” </em></strong>I hastily nod even though he can’t see me and quickly grab my clothes, wring them out as best I can put them on. For a moment they only make it worse but once the water in the fabric begins warming up it does feel a little warmer.</p><p>Mere seconds later I see his shadow fall onto me, then he lands on the opposite side of the stream and quickly spins around. <strong><em>“You’re really not looking good Arya, your lips are all blue and swollen.” </em></strong>He takes a moment to look me up and down as I stand there shaking. <strong><em>“Your hands and fingers too, let me get you warmed up.” </em></strong>He stares into my eyes and I instinctively stare back.</p><p>His huge yellow eyes take on a faint glow that quickly grows stronger and I feel the water in my clothes heat up, then my skin and muscles start feeling warm as well.</p><p>The heat in my clothes becomes almost uncomfortable for a bit before the glow in Scátháns eyes begins to fade again and my clothes stop being so extremely warm, the warmth in my body however, stays and so does a weak glow in his eyes.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you feeling better? If not, I can make the spell a little stronger.” </em></strong>I eagerly nod. <em>“I’m good for now I think.” </em>I rub my arms and take a deep breath, the feeling of relief as the cold is purged from my body is something else. Scáthán steps across the stream creek and as he walks past me, scoops me up with his tail to place me on his back. Once he feels that I’ve gotten my arms around his neck he leaps forward once, twice and then takes off. With a few quick strokes of his wings he brings himself some hundred feet (~30m) into the air. We speed across the grassland and after just a mile I spot Dorn down in the grass. He’s busy tearing into what looks to be a deer. The entire surrounding grass is quite torn up, clearly, he had ambushed a herd of them and this one happened to not be fast enough. I can follow the tracks of the other deer scattering for a moment, then reuniting and disappearing over the horizon.</p><p>Scáthán slows down and glides to the ground just in time to stop next to my brother. For a split second I think about jumping off but then I realize that for one I’m up too high to land safely and I really don’t want to have to wash myself again.</p><p>Dorn pauses just long enough to glance up at me and smile, then returns to his meal. <strong><em>“Don’t eat too much yet Dorn, you’ll be flying for quite a while longer. You’ve seen what happens when you eat too much and exert yourself.” </em></strong>Dorn pulls his head out from the deer’s bowls and looks up at his dad, then swallows whatever he had in his mouth and nods quickly.</p><p>He licks his face clean and, after a look around, starts running and takes off. Scátháns eyes follow him for a while until he’s sure that Dorn entered a stable flight before he goes to eat what Dorn had left behind.</p><p>Since Dorn flies slowly compared to what Scáthán is capable of he can keep up with Dorn by simply walking and running after him, depending on how hard Dorn is pushing his speed. The three of us keep moving north, away from the ocean and cliffs. Some half an hour later, the sun now approaching the horizon, a forest comes into view. We must be dozens of miles away from home by now and I wonder when we’re turning back. It’ll be night by the time we make it either way though.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t be so sure of that Arya. Once we make it to the forest, I and Dorn catch some food for Skaftá and the little ones, then we head back. In the meantime, you can go gather some plants for yourself, your body needs things other than meat after all.” </em></strong>I’m too busy watching Dorn try all kinds of fancy manoeuvres to give him a proper reply and instead just make a humming sound.</p><p><em>“After all these hours of flying, shouldn’t Dorn be at least mildly exhausted?” </em>I wonder as he goes for another dive, only to fly back up and try again. I slightly shake my head and lie down on my dads back. <em>“To have this amount of energy for even a day.” </em></p><p>The rest of the walk passes without any incident and as we pass the first few trees Dorn flies closer to us, eventually landing on the tip of his fathers’ snout, tail dangling off the side and head held high like a figurehead. Scáthán stops dead in his tracks and I can feel him staring at my brother, mostly wondering why but also slightly annoyed.</p><p>Seeing how Dorn is entirely unwilling to move he bounces him into the air and lets him land on the back half of his head, just above his eyes. Then he tilts his head backwards, making Dorn slide down his neck like a handrailing.</p><p>Dorn picks up enough speed on his way down but instead of moving back I simply sit up and spread my arms to catch him. As he’s about to slide into me I lean into the impact and get my arms around him. The collision still elicits a grunt from me but nothing more.</p><p>I keep tightly hugging him and rest my head against his neck once I’ve had a moment to breathe.</p><p>He’s still trying to figure out what exactly happened but since he can feel me hugging him, he doesn’t mind and simply snuggles into me.</p><p>Scáthán carries us a bit deeper into the forest before he eventually picks us off his back. <strong><em>“Alright you two time to find us some dinner. Arya you can go forage around this area, I recon there should be plenty of edible plants here. In the meantime, Dorn and I will go hunt, again if anything is off call for me.” </em></strong>He looks down at us, his eyes moving from me to Dorn as he addresses us. My brother tries to wiggle out of my grip for a second, then realizes he couldn’t get out either way and instead waits for me to let go and get up.</p><p>Once I’ve stood up, he quickly hops to his fathers’ side and the two walk off into the trees.</p><p>I keep watching them until they disappear from my sight, then look around to see what I can spot on a first glance. <em>“It’s not all pine trees but most of these looks like Acorn and Chestnut trees.” </em>I notice that a lot of the trees had begun changing their colour, mostly they’re light yellow to orange, not quite brown yet but the signs of autumn having arrived are clearly visible. <em>“Explains the drop-in temperature at least, and it’ll get a lot colder soon, I wonder if they’ll be able to keep me warm even at negative temperatures.” </em></p><p>I leave the spot where Scáthán had dropped me off and wander about a bit, looking for trees that are ready to be picked. <em>“Think Arya, what fruits were in season now? Cherries are past due for sure, maybe I could have some luck with Apples and Pears. If I recall correctly root vegetables might also be an option. I probably should stay away from mushrooms, don’t know nearly enough to safely pick them. And berries are way out of season too, looks like food might be pretty sparse.” </em></p><p>As I was pondering my options, I had walked quite a bit without paying much attention. The first tree that I consciously look at again happens to be another chestnut tree. <em>“Hold up, I can eat those.” </em></p><p>A grin appears on my lips. <em>“Might not be so bad after all, and I get to experience new things.” </em></p><p>I glance at the lower branches of the tree and realize that, unless some have already fallen, I won’t be getting up into it. I mutter a curse under my breath and keep going.</p><p>The trees grow a bit shorter as I apparently make my way closer to the edge of the forest, with the canopy coming lower and lower other trees that don’t grow as far start standing more of a chance to flourish and as luck would have it, I run into a group of apple trees. Most fruits already look half eaten by bugs or birds, but some might be salvageable.</p><p>It takes me a few tries, but I manage to climb up one of the more promising looking trees and pluck a few. The first bite is extremely sour, and my face involuntarily turns into a grimace. <em>“It’s not like I have much of a choice though.” </em>I take a few more bites before I decide that it might be better to continue searching and just keep these in mind for later. I pinch one apple between my teeth and keep the other two in one hand as I slowly lower myself to the ground again.</p><p>As I’m about to let go off the lowest branch I notice that even though my descent was done one armed I didn’t struggle keeping my grip. I let go and once I’ve recovered from the landing, I look at my arm and flex my muscles. <em>“Certainly, looks like I’ve gotten stronger.” </em>I think to myself and furtively look up at a branch just within my reach. I place the two fresh apples on the ground but keep the half eaten one in my mouth. <em>“Wouldn’t want that one to get dirty.” </em>I need to get onto my toes to get a firm grip on it and then try to pull myself up. At first it feels like I’m not going to make it but after pausing for a moment, then giving it my all again, I actually manage to pull myself all the way up so that I could rest my chin on top of the branch.</p><p>I hold myself like that for a few seconds, then lower myself to the ground again. I clench my fist and silently yell “Yes.” I smile widely and look up at the branch, then at my hands. <em>“I never imagined that I could do something like this. I could probably even go for more.” </em>I consider it for a second but decide that finding more food is more important.</p><p>I grab what I had gathered and wander onwards, eating the leftovers of the apple as I go</p><p>The trees thin out even more I spot some shrubberies and other things on the ground, though most that look like they could grow berries are devoid of anything edible. <em>“As I imagined. I’m a few months too late for that.” </em>Among some of the younger trees I also spot something that could be an olive tree. <em>“I’ve seen people eat these, I guess I could try them…” </em></p><p>Fortunately, the tree is small enough that I can reach up to its fruits with relative ease. I pick one off that looks decent and spin it between my fingers. <em>“What’s the worst that could happen.” </em>I chucked in my mouth and regret my decision after the first bite. I spit it out as fast as I can and retch. <em>“Bah, disgusting. It’s just bitter. How can people eat this?” </em>I stick my tongue out hoping to make the acrid taste go away. Out of desperation I take a hearty bite out of an apple, the sourness makes me wrinkle my nose again but it’s much preferable to the bitterness. <em>“Memo to myself, olives are fucking disgusting.” </em>After giving myself a moment to recover I continue my efforts to find something edible. With the forest mostly gone I notice that the ground isn’t just full of grass, there are a lot of spots where random grasses flourish, some resembling herbs. <em>“This gives me an idea.” </em>I kneel down and inspect some of them. <em>“This certainly reminds me of Basil…” </em>I pluck a single leaf off the plant and take a thorough look at it. <em>“Why does this plant have such nondescript leaves. For all I know this could be some poisonous garbage.”</em> I purse my lips and furrow my eyebrows. <em>“I’m not sure if my parents could heal me if I poison myself. I mean they could heal my broken bones and destroyed organs so why not?” </em>I bring the leaf up to my lips but hesitate for a moment longer. <em>“It’ll be better if I just try a tiny bite, that way, even if I poison myself it won’t be too bad…hopefully.” </em>I cautiously bite a tiny bit off the tip of the leaf and thoroughly chew it. <em>“Not bitter, that’s a good sign. I can’t quite make out the flavour though.” </em>I eye the rest of the leaf. <em>“Fuck it, you miss all the shots you don’t take.” </em>I take another much bigger bite. <em>“Still not bitter, and the taste certainly reminds me of basil.”</em> Emboldened by the absence of any obvious signs of a poisonous plant I eat the rest of the leaf, if it truly were toxic to me, I would later regret it but in my mind, I was sure this was just your garden variety basil. <em>“Luckily, this stuff dries well too.” </em>I rip a handful of stems out to keep for later. <em>“I’ll have to find a place where they could actually dry without rotting though.” </em>After another glance around I spot a few more candidates for potential spices but decide against picking any of it right now, my hands are already full. <em>“I’ll make sure to come back here.” </em>I quickly walk back to the group of apple trees, finishing the one apple I had started eating on the way there. Then climb up one of the trees and start knocking down the good-looking ones. Once I’ve gotten about a dozen on the ground I climb back down, gather them up and sit down at the bottom of the tree. <em>“And now we wait” </em>I grab one of the apples and begin nibbling away at it while staring off into the distance.</p><p>I manage to eat just about two and a half apples before I hear rustling nearby and see my brother approach me from the side. He looks rather content and from what I can feel he’s well fed to say the least. I wave at him, remainder of an apple in hand, and get up from my spot and stretch. Scáthán isn’t far behind but his scales hide him. Dorn inspects the apples I gathered and sniffs the basil in my hand, he’s rather intrigued by it and before I know it, he has nabbed himself a piece of it. <em>“Hey.” </em>I yell at him mentally and he immediately winces but keeps chewing. <strong><em>“Why do you keep these strange tasting plants?” </em></strong>He asks as if nothing happened.</p><p>I put on a fake frown and look at how much he took off, fortunately it’s only part of one stem.</p><p><em>“I have a hunch your taste buds work rather differently so you don’t perceive the same flavours as I do.” </em>He nods slowly and swallows. <strong><em>“I see, can I sneak a peek at your memories? I want to know what you taste.”</em></strong> I sigh and shake my head. <em>“You’re really going to pretend like nothing happened? You owe me one for this.” </em>I point at the half-eaten basil and stare him down. I can sense his discomfort and some form of remorse in him. <strong><em>“I’ll make up for it, sister, I promise.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I’m sure you will.” </em>I answer in a threatening tone. <em>“Alright, go ahead, I’ll let you see that memory.” </em>I can feel his presence in my head grow much more intense and I focus on the memory of me trying the basil leaf, especially how it tasted. Since it’s only from some thirty minutes ago it’s still quite vivid and detailed. I can feel Dorn watching with great interest and Scáthán appears to be sneaking a peek as well. Since the memory isn’t that long I find myself in the empty void that is my mind in that moment, the presence of my brother right next to me.</p><p>He quickly retreats back to his own body and everything returns to normal once I open my eyes again.</p><p>I’m surprised to see me, and Dorn already placed onto our fathers back. <em>“When? What?” </em>I notice him looking at us, just waiting for either of us to notice. <strong><em>“You two were so busy I figured I’d use my time and get us ready to head back, it’s almost dark so we better hurry.” </em></strong>He starts slowly walking back towards the cliffs. The sun has mostly set, only a small sliver poking above the horizon, by the time we get home it’s going to be rather dark. <strong><em>“Who said we’re walking back?” </em></strong>I feel his pace quicken as we leave the forest behind and enter a grassland. Dorn appears to already know what’s coming and lies down flat on his fathers back, I try to do the same, all the while keeping my food in my hands. <strong><em>“Don’t worry too much about falling off, I won’t be flying. And even if you do slip off, I’ll be sure to catch you.” </em></strong>By now he has entered something of a jog, and it doesn’t feel like he’s going to slow down.</p><p>I risk a quick look over my shoulder to see the forest rapidly fuse with the horizon, I also notice that Scáthán is dragging what looks like a dead cow behind him. <em>“And he’s still going this fast, wow. Also looks like the two of them really have it out for cattle, I wonder why.” </em> </p><p>I quickly turn my head to look forward and lie down flat again lest I get thrown off by unexpected movement. As soon as Scáthán feels me lying down he doubles his acceleration and enters a full-blown sprint across the meadow, his paws hid the ground with a dull thud, two at a time. <em>Thud thud…thud thud…thud, thud</em></p><p>Over and over again at an increasing frequency. The wind blows past me as if we were flying and I can feel his body move underneath me, he’s putting everything he has into this.</p><p>I don’t dare lift my head as I fear that the wind would catch under me and simply peel me off his back. Fortunately, with him going at such a murderous speed we only take some ten minutes to get back to the cliffs. Scáthán doesn’t slow down as we approach the cliffs and I brace myself for take-off. I hear his paws slam into the ground one last time and then suddenly the night falls silent. I know he must have leapt over the edge and as if to confirm my thoughts I hear the crunch of rucks as his hindlegs push off the ground as well. The distinct sound of him spreading his wings and the wind catching in them follows a split second later. I half expect him to enter some kamikaze dive to bring us down to the water in just a few seconds but much to my surprise he instead glides downwards slowly. Once we’re halfway between the top of the cliff and the ocean he turns around and flies towards the caves entrance. Merely a minute later he swiftly lands on inside the cave, a slight crunch accompanying his paws as they make contact. He carries me and my brother to where</p><p>Skaftá lies, lets go off the now battered cow carcass and walks to his usual sleeping spot before putting me and my brother back to the ground.</p><p>I look around for the other two siblings but with the dim light in the cave I can barely see anything.</p><p>Instead of straining my eyes looking for them I close my eyes and try to sense them. Even that takes a while as Skaftá and Scáthán minds are so massive they make it hard to sense anything else. But eventually I do succeed and notice a green and blue spot about where Skaftás front paws lie.</p><p>I open my eyes again and by now they’ve grown more accustomed to the darkness and I manage to see more than just outlines. <em>“Looks like they’re lying between her front paws, probably sleeping.” </em></p><p>Skaftá stirs a little and then opens her eyes. <strong><em>“Welcome back, I see the three of you had plenty of fun.” </em></strong>She sounds a little drowsy still.</p><p>I just nod and go to sit down next to her, after having spent my whole day away from her I want to give her some company.</p><p>Dorn follows me closely and Skaftá lifts her head to have her dinner that Scáthán placed so neatly in front of her. As she moves her head, she also reveals Aonar and Coille lying curled up in front of her paws, they look like they’re asleep but as I come closer, I notice Coille actually has her eyes open and is staring at me. <strong><em>“Hello sister.” </em></strong>She says, not an inkling of sleepiness in her voice.</p><p>I kneel down next to her and gently rub her scaly head and she pushes her head against my hand.</p><p>I try my best to sit down while continuing to pet her and end up having to put my already wilting handful of basil aside. <em>“I recall this stuff being fragile, but this is hilarious.” </em>I drop it on the ground some two feet (60cm) away from me and move myself next to my sister. She notices the smell of basil clinging to my hand and curiously sniffs it. She pauses for a moment and looks at me, then licks her lips the tip of her tongue. I can sense that she wants to see how it tastes. <em>“Alright let me just get you a leaf.” </em>But before I can even move my hand an inch, she gives my palm a gentle lick and then smacks her lips as she analyses the flavour.</p><p><em>“Oh, or like that if that’s fine.” </em>I freeze up for a moment, unsure how to react.</p><p>She nods happily rests her head on my lap. <em>“Alright then.” </em>I wipe my hand off on my shirt and rest my hand on her head. Suddenly Dorns head appears on my lap as well and snuggles right up to his sister. <strong><em>“Why do you get mad at me for licking your hand and not at her?” </em></strong>He asks in an accusatory tone. <em>“Well first of all I could have guessed what she wanted from her behaviour, so it didn’t come out of nowhere and she didn’t slobber all over my hand.” </em>He wants to say something but, in the end, keeps quiet. I pat his head and smile. <em>“But I also think I’m starting to be bothered less by it.” </em>I keep petting their heads and lean against Skaftá to relax a little.</p><p>Being outside had been nice but having my parents around and being comfortable snuggled up to them and my siblings is nice too.</p><p>Skaftá has finished her dinner as well and rests her head next to Dorn. <strong><em>“It’s good to see all of you get along so well.” </em></strong>She smiles happily and I feel her shift around a little to create a more comfortable crevice between her front paw and her chest. <em>“Thank you very much.” </em></p><p>Suddenly I hear someone’s stomach grumble and it certainly didn’t sound like mine. <strong><em>“Mom, when are we having dinner?” </em></strong>I hear Coille ask Skaftá.</p><p><strong><em>“You father should have brought something for the two of you.” </em></strong>She slowly lifts her head opening a path over to Scáthán. <strong><em>“I sure did.” </em></strong></p><p>I feel Coille get up and trot past me, followed by Aonar. <em>“Talking about dinner… Crap I forgot my apples back by the tree.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Good thing you have me right Arya?” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me. <em>“Hold up, what do you mean? How did you bring the apples with you?” </em></p><p>While I can’t see it, I can sense him grinning widely. <strong><em>“Isn’t it obvious?” </em></strong>I hear the sound of him opening his mouth and then a faint sound of something rolling onto the floor. <em>“Oh great…” </em>I sigh and begin thinking about how to wash them without making them taste salty as all get out.</p><p>
  <em>“But then where do you keep the food for my siblings? I didn’t see you carry anything in your paws, or tail for that matter.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Well I’m just full of tricks aren’t I.” </em></strong>I hear him retch once and twice, then something wet plops onto the floor. <em>“Thanks for that mental image…But how?” </em>I close my eyes and rub my temples, trying to not imagine what half-digested mess he just regurgitated.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s not that disgusting. Remember how we have extensive control of our bodies and can shut down our digestive tract almost entirely. This deer is basically covered in more viscous saliva.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I remember now, that doesn’t make it much better though I’m quite sure.” </em>I shake my head and instead stare at my brother, focusing on petting him.</p><p>Dorn happily snuggles up to me and looks at me with content eyes. In the meantime, I can hear my siblings having at their dinner on the other side of the cave. <em>“They sure must be ravenous. Makes me wonder just how much Dorn ate. I already noticed his erm… portion size increasing recently.” </em></p><p>I notice that a grin has appeared on Dorns face. <strong><em>“Let’s just say…a lot.” </em></strong>I lightly shake my head and smile. <em>“No wonder they need to keep moving. I wonder how having three juvenile dragons around will impact that.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Not as much as you might think Arya, we’ll probably be moving every four months or so. The problem isn’t exactly that we eat everything in our vicinity but rather that everything flees, and it gets to the point where we can’t find enough anymore. Adding three more dragons to the equation doesn’t shift it too much. Also, if I were you, I’d get to cleaning up your food sooner rather than later.” </em></strong>Skaftá says to me as she lies down again after watching the little ones eat for a bit.</p><p>I tilt my head and wonder what she means for a moment, then realize that as dad’s saliva dries it’ll probably be even worse to get off. <em>“You’re right, thank you.” </em>Much to my surprise Dorn had already removed his head from my lap so I could get up, I expected him to put up at least something of a fight.</p><p>I pat his head quickly and quietly thank him for letting me go, then stand up and walk over to where I presume the apples to be, just a few feet behind where my siblings are eating.</p><p>As I approach, I stop for a moment to watch them, they’ve slowed down a little already but there also isn’t much left of the seemingly young deer our father caught. <em>“It’s scary how quick even the younglings eat…” </em>I decide to not think about it any further and try to find the apples in the dimly lit cave.</p><p>Some of them happened to roll farther than other so it ends up taking me a solid minute to gather them all up. Surprisingly, none of them are too disgusting to touch, they all just feel wet and a little slimy, not nearly as bad as I expected them to be.</p><p>Once I think I found them all I stack them into a pile and think about how to clean them. <em>“I don’t really want to use ocean water, don’t have access to any fresh water either.” </em>As I look down at the soggy pile of apples, I also notice my shirt and the many holes in it. <em>“Would wiping them down be enough?” </em>I scratch my chin and shrug. <em>“I guess it has to be.” </em>I look around for the box of my belongings and once I find it further back in the darkness, I quickly pull a fresh shirt from it. I quickly look around, hoping to see no one watching me, then once I feel that I’m not being watched hurry to swap them out. I take a second to appreciate the feeling of fresh clothes on my skin.</p><p>Before I head back, I remember feeling something odd while I pulled out the new shirt. <em>“What was that again?” </em>I turn around once again and pull whatever it was out. <em>“A backpack…” </em>I star at it. <em>“How could I forget?” </em>I shake my head and throw it onto my back. <em>“That would have been helpful today…Well nothing to be done about it now.” </em>Before I take care of my dinner, I make sure to drop the backpack off at the bed, so I won’t forget about it tomorrow.</p><p>Next, I pick an apple from the top of the pile and wrap one hand in the remains of my shirt, then try to rub the apple dry. Once I deem it dry enough, I take a bite out of it and almost immediately spit it out again. Not because it tastes bad or I didn’t clean it enough, but because it’s warm on the inside. The internal temperature makes me think I left it in the sun on a summer day. I manage to keep myself from spitting it halfway through the cave however and force myself to swallow. <em>“What the fuck, why?” </em>I grab another apple and poke it with my finger to feel the temperature. It’s not exactly ambient temperature but not nearly as warm. I quickly dry it off too and then carefully take a small bite. The first bit feels a little warm but not nearly as bad, however the second bite feels warm again. I stare at the two apples in my hands and then look at the remaining pile. <em>“What?” </em>I shake my head and furrow my forehead.</p><p>A moment later the realization hit me, making me almost drop what I was holding and forcing a deep sigh from my mouth. <em>“I am so dumb, where were those apples just ten minutes ago?” </em></p><p>I mumble a curse under my breath and continue eating. Now that I know what to expect when biting into them the warmth bothers me a lot less, hell it almost feels good. <em>“I heard people ate baked apples, I’m sure there’s more to making one but hey this is nice too, kind of at least.” </em>I finish the first one and by now the other one had mostly cooled down. While I’m munching away, I begin to wonder how they got so warm in the first place. Sure, they contain a lot of water and thus hold a lot of heat once brought up to temperature, but they felt so oddly warm even in my mouth. <em>“Just how high does their body temperature go? The memories I’ve seen imply that they sort of behave like reptiles in that regard.” </em></p><p>I shut my eyes and reach for my parents’ presence in my head. Scáthán is the first to answer. <strong><em>“In reality we’re unlike both reptiles and mammals. We can hold a stable body temperature not too much higher than yours but our bodies can’t dissipate the heat faster than we produce it when we fly or run fast. But since we’re so massive our bodies temperature only rises slowly, and we are adapted to deal with a wider range. We don’t experience any ill effect between 85°F(~30°C) and 135°F(~55°C), which allows us to live just about anywhere on the planet. Only in deserts and polar regions does the ambient temperature impact us.” </em></strong>He pauses and lets Skaftá take over. <strong><em>“Far up north we can’t shut our bodies down too much otherwise we start freezing, thus needing more food and in deserts or near the equator we can’t hunt too much in a single day otherwise we start overheating. That’s what you saw in the memory where I dove into the lake to cool off. It had been a rather hot day and I was out hunting for a long time since food was getting scarce. All that flying around led to my body reaching close to 120°F(~49°C).” </em></strong></p><p>I nod quickly as I chew. <em>“So, what you’re saying is that these apples got so warm because Scátháns body had heated up?” </em>I can sense him affirm my question. <em>“Interesting, I wonder how your bodies adapted to not cooking themselves alive. At this point one can only guess.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“We don’t know either, sorry Arya.” </em></strong>Skaftá says.</p><p>I finish my eating in silence and then get back to my brother. While I was busy my siblings had finished eating too and had already returned to their previous spots. I sit down between Dorn and Coille once again and both are quick to rest their heads on me and get comfortable so that I may pet them. <em>“I see that this becoming something of a job for me huh. Not that I mind.” </em>I rub their heads and necks while I get comfortable against Skaftás scales as well.</p><p>By now the sun must have completely set and the only light reaching us is coming from the moon, leaving the cave so dark I can only make out shapes between me and the cave entrance. Anything behind me lies in complete darkness. The air too is starting to cool down now that the sun is gone, it’s not overly chilly yet since the air is rather still but if I don’t get something to keep me warm, I might end up with hypothermia by tomorrow. Dorn and Coille sense my concern and both of them snuggle up closer to me, trying to cover me with their bodies and wings. They do a pretty good job of it and I feel their bodies warm up mine. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help the side of me that sits on the floor and keeps losing heat to the rock below. <em>“I wish I could stay like this, it’s so comfortable and I would to hate breaking this up.” </em></p><p>Fortunately, I’m not quite cold enough to be bothered by it and none of my siblings look like they’re about to go to sleep.</p><p>And so, we remain lying and sitting on the ground, snuggled up into a pile, me petting them as best I can while half buried under them.</p><p>Our parents have both mostly gone to sleep, only Skaftá occasionally checks in on us occasionally.</p><p>However, all good things must come to an end and sometime around midnight I find myself yawning more and more often. I can sense my siblings getting tired too and with a heavy heart I gently push my brother off of me. He looks at me with drowsy eyes, asking me why I’m pushing him off before sluggishly moving himself off. I then turn to my sister and try to get her off me as well, but she had already fallen sleep at some point. Luckily, I can simply slide out from under her, holding her head up as I do to keep it from falling. I then gently rest her head on the ground and sneak off to the mattress, my brother tailing behind me.</p><p>I crawl under the blanket and hold one side of it up to let Dorn join me as well. I put my arm around him and pull him close, then we both get comfortable and rest our heads on one another before closing our eyes.</p><p>Before I get to drift off however I feel someone nudge my hand that had ended up just out from under the blanket. I raise my head just far enough to see over my brother, only to realize that whoever it is, is standing deeper in the cave than me and thus I can’t see them. I already feel my heartrate increase but it’s not long lived as I hear Coille speak to me. <strong><em>“Sorry to bother you two but is there space for me as well?” </em></strong>She asks, her voice both tired and shy.</p><p>I look over my shoulder to see if there some pace behind my back and indeed there might just be enough for me. I slowly nod and lie down again. I hear her trot around to behind me, then a rustling sound as she steps onto this makeshift bed. I feel her tug on the blanket as she tries to get under it and a moment later her scales brush against my back. She takes a moment to settle herself on this rather thin strip that was left for her but in the end, she manages to snuggle her full length against my back, wrapping her tail around on of my legs and resting her head on my neck in the crevice between my shoulder ad head. She rubs her head against my skin and moves one of her wings to cover me. <strong><em>“Thank you, sister.” </em></strong>She says, her voice more of a whisper now.<strong><em> “Good night.” </em></strong></p><p>She follows up with and a second later her body relaxes as she drifts off to sleep.</p><p>I gently squeeze her head between my shoulder and cheek, carefully rubbing my cheek against her. <strong><em>“Good night to you too sister.” </em></strong></p><p>I close my eyes again but this time my brother keeps from going to sleep just yet. He too wraps his tail around the same leg, leaving it fully wrapped in their tails and he moves his head to be right in front of mine. He moves one of his wings over me as well, placing it in the same place as his sister did. <strong><em>“Good night sister.” </em></strong>He says and after a second of silence I hear him open his mouth. I shoot him a deadly glare, sensing that this isn’t just him yawning. He freezes for a moment, then closes his mouth again. <strong><em>“Sorry sister…May I?” </em></strong>He gently nudges my forehead.</p><p>I press my lips together and keep glaring at him. <em>“Alright, but you better not give me a proverbial bath.” </em>Dorn appears rather amused by my statement. <strong><em>“I promise I won’t.” </em></strong>I hear him open his mouth once more and feel the tip of his tongue glide over my forehead. <strong><em>“See.” </em></strong>I use the back of my hand to wipe what little saliva he left behind away and smile. <em>“Good, it seems you are capable of being nice to me.” </em>I stick out my tongue at him rub the top of his head. <em>“We should really go to sleep now though.” </em>I shut my eyes for the hopefully final time and so does my brother and this time I get to actually fall asleep.</p><p>For a moment my mind goes completely blank as I drift off and once, I enter the REM part of my sleep I find myself in the land of dreams again. Except this time, I’m neither floating through space nor am I by my brothers’ side. Instead I’m flying above a very familiar looking forest, not on my own fortunately. Coille is gliding by my side, she appears to be very focussed on something.</p><p>I look around and can’t find anything, just trees, some clouds and the sun hanging in the sky. I drop a bit lower to see if there’s something on the floor because I had seen dreams similar to this before and it was usually my parents teaching the younglings how to hunt.</p><p>And indeed, I spot Dorn running through the trees. <em>“This must be from today I’m pretty sure. Is he trying to teach his sister how to hunt?” </em>I look up to where Coille is gliding and it does indeed look like she’s closely watching him. <em>“That’s pretty darn sweet. Seems he has already embraced his role as the bigger brother to her.” </em></p><p>I let myself drift aside to not be in the way and keep watching Dorn as he goes from a sprint to a walk and finally begins sneaking around. Suddenly he leaps forward and digs his claws into something hiding under a bush. He pulls a dead hare out from under the shrubbery and before I can take a closer look at it it’s already gone down his throat.</p><p>He keeps prowling through the underwood, catching several rabbits as he goes.</p><p>As he’s looking for his next prey he stops and raises his head. He sniffs the air and very carefully sneaks off into a dense group of tall bushes. He remains hidden under there for a while, probably half an hour.</p><p>I’m beginning to wonder what he’s waiting for when a herd of deer comes into view. A grin grows on my face since I already know what’s coming.</p><p>Dorn waits until one decides to eat just a few feet away from his hiding spot. He breaks out from the thicket, his claws ready to dig into his prey. The deer only manages to turn around before he lands on its back, making it stumble and collapse under his weight. He holds onto it with ease and before it’s fully collapsed on the ground, he digs his teeth into its neck, then jerks his head left and right quickly. All life disappears from the deer’s body and when Dorn lets go off its head it simply flops to the ground like a ragdoll.</p><p>He doesn’t waste a second to tear into his meal, the other deer had already scattered, so there was little reason to go after them.</p><p>Coille lands next to him and joins him in devouring the deer. I keep watching the two for a little longer before landing myself and waiting for them to finish.</p><p> </p><p>At some point Dorn looks up at me for a moment and comments. <strong><em>“You’re looking rather sharp today.” </em></strong>He winks at me and resumes eating.</p><p>I look at him completely flabbergasted. <em>“Why would he comment on my looks? What? I have so many questions.” </em>I look down at my feet to check if it’s just some weirdness caused by the dream and notice that my arms are covered in scales. I open my mouth a little to sound a quiet “Ooooooh.”</p><p>I hunch down to check how far it had spread, my calves are also covered as well and when I try to get back up, I notice that my body had almost completely morphed into that of a dragon in those few seconds. <em>“Well that explains it.” </em>I get on all fours and stretch as long as I can. I quickly glance at myself and then at Dorn, trying to figure out how tall I ended up being. By the looks of it I wound up just a bit shorter than him.</p><p>Once I’m done, I look back at where my feet used to be, and I notice that now my neck is the correct length as well. I notice the tail I’m dragging behind myself and try to move it around, watching it spaz around. I’m quite amused by all the things I can do with it, I even almost tie a knot into it. <strong><em>“Having fun there, sister?” </em></strong>I hear Dorn ask me and without looking at him I answer <em>“Sure am.” </em></p><p>Next, I try to get a feel for my wings, I manage to figure out how to work them quite fast since I already had a few dreams where I grew wings. Finally, I turn my attention towards my brother and sister, they’re both still busy eating though you can tell they’ve already consumed a good chunk of their prey.</p><p>I lick my lips and join them, Dorn even voluntarily leaving his spot for me. I shut my eyes and sink my teeth into what’s left of the carcass. I feel warm flesh and blood fill my mouth and I clamp my jaws shut with all my might. A crunch is heard as my teeth break through bones and with a squelch, I tear a chunk free. I have some trouble chewing since I bit off so much but eventually, I get it to the point where I can swallow. I feel my throat stretch to accommodate all this food going down, then pain of it all making me grimace. <strong><em>“Don’t be greedy sister.” </em></strong>Dorn says, sounding rather smug. I snarl at him and quietly growl. <em>“I’ll remind you of that later.” </em>I take another, smaller bite.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m sure you will.” </em></strong>Dorn grins at me cheerfully, though the way his head and teeth are covered in gore makes it look more nightmarish than happy.</p><p>The three of us quickly eat through what is left, only leaving the hooves and a little bit of the legs.</p><p>Before I can ask where we’re going next, Dorn heads off into the trees. I and Coille shoot each other a quick glance and then follow our brothers lead.</p><p>As the three of us prowl through the woods I notice the temperature increasing and humidity dropping, then the trees begin to change as well. Suddenly we walk out into a savanna in the middle of Africa. I stop for a moment to take in the scenery and figure out why we ended up here while Dorn and Coille keep walking.</p><p><strong><em>“What is it Arya? You not coming?” </em></strong>I head Dorn ask. <em>“Uh, nothing. I’m just wondering why we’re here now.” </em>I run after them to catch up. <strong><em>“I figured it would be a bit more exciting to hunt something that fights back.” </em></strong>We walk onto the top of a hill that overlooks miles of savanna. It looks like a scene from a textbook, animals are wandering all throughout it. Buffalos, Zebras, Elephants and more. I’m pretty sure the ponds throughout are home to alligators as well.</p><p>
  <em>“I don’t know what exactly you want to go after, but I already have a hunch.” </em>
</p><p>He looks at me and tilts his head. <strong><em>“What do you expect me to pick.” </em></strong>I hesitate for a moment as I’m suddenly not entirely sure. <em>“It’s going to be either Elephants or the local apex predator, Lions.” </em></p><p>He grins widely. <strong><em>“You know me well. I was thinking of Lions but Elephants sound even more exciting.” </em></strong></p><p>I shake my head and sigh. <em>“And how do you expect us to take one down?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“If a group of Lions can then we can too. After all any one of us can easily take down a single Lion so three of us shouldn’t have much of a problem with an Elephant.” </em></strong>He sounds really confident in his and our abilities.</p><p><em>“If it stays one Elephant…” </em>My brother doesn’t hear my concerns as he’s already running down the hillside. <em>“Alright, it’s a dream. What’s the worst that could happen? Our parents would probably make an appearance if things got dire.” </em>I sprint after him and Coille follows me closely.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry Arya, Dorn knows what he’s doing.” </em></strong>She says to me as we both sprint and then glide down the hill as well, trying to catch up to Dorn.</p><p>He’s heading straight for a herd of Elephants indulging themselves on the trees along a larger lake. It looks to be over a dozen of them, some juveniles and a few old looking ones.</p><p><em>“I hope he knows what he’s doing.” </em>I reach the foot of the hill and let myself fall to the ground, entering a full sprint as soon as my feet make contact with the ground</p><p>By now the herd had taken notice of us and formed a barrier of bodies between the young and pregnant and us. They’re making what I assume to be threatening noises at us and fling dirt our way in an attempt to scare us off. Dorn and Coille are entirely unimpressed by it but I can’t help and drop back a little.</p><p>One of them decides that their intimidation tactics aren’t working and charges at us. It makes itself look as big as possible, his ears standing on end, trumpeting at us aggressively.</p><p>Dorn leaps into the air and flies up to just about shoulder height of the Elephant, trying to get his claws into its back. The Elephant sees him coming and rears on its hind limbs, positioning its front legs to protect its chest and using the trunk to keep Dorn from its neck.</p><p>Dorn dives just under its front legs and digs his claws into its abdomen. The Elephant sways as it screams in pain and then falls onto all fours, its legs almost giving way.</p><p>The impact is harsh enough that Dorn is thrown to the floor, his claws and teeth simply ripping through the flesh. The impact leaves him dazed and unable to get up.</p><p>The Elephant immediately tries to trample him but before he can lift more than one leg Coille is already on its head, claws swiping at its eyes and ears. The Elephant jumps aside and shakes its head to get Coille off. In the meantime, I see another one already coming forth to try and dispatch of Dorn.</p><p>For a split second I freeze up, unsure what to do. Then I remember that I’ve got claws and teeth of my own. I jump over my brother and stand between him and the other Elephants, snarling and growling as loudly as I can. The Elephant slows down and then retreats back to the herd who had been slowly backing away from us to make their escape soon.</p><p>Dorn manages to get back on all fours and immediately rushes off to attack the elephant Coille is clinging to. I quickly look over to see her with her jaws clamped onto the base of one of the tusks, she had already destroyed the elephant’s eyes and cut large gashes into the ears. The trunk looks very torn up as well, hanging downward lifelessly.</p><p>What previously sounded like angry threats, now sounds more like pleads for help and mercy.</p><p>I turn my attention to the rest of the herd again, a few of them are looking at their friend, probably wanting to help but the sight of two furious dragons tearing into it keeps them from intervening.</p><p>One of them tries to sneak up on me and take me down in the hope that my siblings would leave when they saw me die. I however had other plans and just before he can grab me with his trunk I roar as loud as I can and snap at its trunk. I feel my teeth sink into the muscle and blood floods my mouth. The elephant tires to free its trunk from my mouth but only ends up tearing it off where I bit into it. I take a step back, blood dripping from my jaws and a piece of elephant trunk dangling from my mouth.</p><p>At this moment the herd decides to flee and leave their friend to the dragons.</p><p>I swallow the piece of trunk and run over to where Dorn and Coille are still fighting the elephant. By now they’ve brought it to its knees, it keeps trying to get up and shake them off, but its legs won’t bear the weight anymore and its attempts to throw my siblings off are more akin to a weak quiver than anything else.</p><p>It has gaping cuts all over it side and upper back and by the looks of it they also destroyed at least two of its knees. <em>“Damn…I’ll do my best to put it out of its misery quickly.” </em>I run over to them, jump onto the elephants back. It, feeling me land, tries one last time to get all of us off but my claws only cut deeper with its every movement. I bare my teeth and growl quietly, then close my jaws around its neck. Turns out an elephant’s neck is pretty wide, and it feels like I’m just about to dislocate my jaws. I decide that this is the best I can do and shut my mouth, trying to break its neck.</p><p>My teeth cut in with little issue but then I feel a lot of resistance, since my mouth is open so wide, I can barely get any leverage.</p><p>I move my jaws back and forth just slightly to let my teeth cut deeper and deeper and finally I can get the leverage to force my mouth shut. With a crunch the vertebrae break between my teeth and suddenly the elephant collapses and goes limp. I violently throw my head to the left and right, hearing more bones snap and finally the spinal cord severs as well. I rip what is in my mouth out and swallow. <em>“Finally.” </em>I hop off and see Coille and Dorn do the same, both have blood all over them and their claws are red and full of gore. <strong><em>“Good job you two.” </em></strong>Dorn says as he stands back and appreciates what the three of us managed to achieve. I take a look around to see that just about every single animal has fled the area, leaving only us and a few birds here and there.</p><p>Dorn and Coille don’t waste much time to start eating away at this mountain of food, I however, take my time since I don’t feel hungry and am also quite winded from all the running and fighting as well as the adrenalin rush.</p><p><em>“Hunting prey several times my size is not for me for sure.” </em>I decide to lie down slightly to the side and keep watch over my siblings and the surrounding area instead.</p><p>As expected, my siblings barely make a dent in the carcass before they’re too full to walk. Coille is the first one to come staggering over to me. She licks her snout clean and lies down next to me, releasing a grumble of satisfaction. A few minutes later Dorn follows and does just the same.</p><p>We spent a long time lying around, digesting or otherwise being lazy.</p><p>
  <em>“I wonder what an adult dragon wouldn’t hunt. I imagine an elephant isn’t much more of a challenge for an adult than just about everything else.” </em>
</p><p>I hear Dorn stir next to me and notice some dust blowing past me. <strong><em>“From what my parents showed me, we don’t go after whales, the bigger ones at least.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“You’re talking about blue whales and the likes?” </em>I ask.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Yes, but not because they’re dangerous to hunt but rather because they’re simply too much to eat, a lot of it would go to waste and it’s likely to upset the balance of the ecosystem. Not that we don’t usually do that, just to a lesser extent.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod slowly. <em>“That does sound reasonable but wouldn’t whatever is left over be consumed by scavengers, right?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Indeed, but that also creates problems. It could be compared to people feeding ducks in a pond lots of bread. The ducks then poop more, their poop decomposes further, consuming oxygen in the pond, leaving none for the fishes and causing them to die. What we would cause isn’t exactly the same thing but the sudden abundance of food for scavengers can cascade into greater problems, leaving the ecosystem out of balance for years, if not irrecoverably damaging it.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“I didn’t even think about it like that, but surely a few whales here and there wouldn’t cause that many problems? The Oceans are vast after all.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“That’s also probably correct but why risk it. We’re not struggling for food right now. Maybe if we ever end up in a sport where it’s either hunt a whale or starve our opinion would be different. Also, besides their carcasses upsetting ecosystems, they themselves play a large part in balancing things out. Suddenly removing a bunch of them from the equation is bound to send things spiralling as well.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“You’re right. There really is no need to go whale hunting. Why can’t humans be this considerate of their surroundings? I guess it’s better now than it once was, but your kind just does things so much better.” </em>I feel Dorn lick the back of my head. <strong><em>“Don’t concern yourself too much with what others do. You’re one of us now and we’ll show you how to do anything you want and more.” </em></strong></p><p>We’re interrupted by Skaftá appearing atop the hill we just stood upon. She leisurely strolls down and up to the carcass of the Elephant. She sniffs it and takes a small bite out of it. <strong><em>“Good job to all three of you.” </em></strong>She lies down next to Dorn, casting her shadow onto the three of us. <strong><em>“But please don’t try this in the real world. There’s still too much that can go wrong, especially since you won’t be able to rely on your big sister to get you out of sticky situations.” </em></strong>She looks at Dorn with mild concern in her eyes. <strong><em>“Okay mom.” </em></strong>He replies, I can sense his want to argue but he knows that she’s right. <strong><em>“But it’s fun.” </em></strong>He adds after a few seconds. <strong><em>“I know it is Dorn, that’s what you should use your dreams for, to do things that you can’t in the real world. You just need to be aware of your limits and the consequences of your actions.” </em></strong>She lowers her head and gently rubs it against his. <strong><em>“I’m not upset with any of you. I just want to make sure you remember the differences between dream and reality.” </em></strong></p><p>Dorn returns the favour for a moment, then lies down flat.</p><p>I use the moment of silence to take another look around. If I ignore the carnage that we left behind, the scenery is rather serene, like out of a picture book once again.</p><p><em>“I wonder what else I’ve missed by not being aware of my dreams before.” </em>I shuffle backwards until I feel my scales touch Dorns paws. He lifts one paw, places it on my shoulder and tugs on me, trying to get me to move even closer. I happily oblige and keep moving until I feel my back flush against his belly. He rests his head next to mine and a few minutes later I’m starting to feel rather tired. <em>“Falling asleep in a dream, now that’s a new one” </em>And inevitably I do drift off.</p><p>Only a few moments later I feel something move next to me and I slowly open my eyes, still feeling rather drowsy. I make some intelligible noise and rubs my eyes, where was I again?</p><p>I find myself looking at the side of my brother’s head, he’s still fast asleep. Again, I feel something shift next to me, scales rubbing over my skin. I slowly raise my head and look around and find myself face to face with Coille. <strong><em>“Sorry for waking you sister, don’t worry about me.” </em></strong>She smiles and quickly slips out from under the blanket. “Alright.” I quietly mumble and drop my head back down. The commotion has woken up Dorn as well, he peers at me, his eyes asking me if it’s time to get up yet. I shake my head and gently pat his. He finches a little when my hand makes contact, not because I spooked him though. <strong><em>“Your hand…it’s really cold.” </em></strong>His thoughts run slow like molasses, clearly, he can barely keep himself awake. I press my hand against my cheek and notice that feels quite cold but nothing to warrant such a reaction. <em>“Ah, it must be that he’s tired.” </em>I smile at him. <em>“Don’t worry I’ll be fine.” </em>I get comfortable again and this time make sure to hide both arms under the blanket to keep them warm.</p><p>Dorn has already closed his eyes again and his mind feels like he’s in the process of drifting off. I shut my eyes as well and it’s not long before I’m asleep again. Though once again my dreams are simply fleeting spectres that I can’t grasp, much unlike what I experienced before.</p><p>In my sleep time passes quickly and eventually I wake up on my own and as if he sensed it Dorn follows suit moments later. He sleepily looks up at me and rapidly blinks a couple times. <strong><em>“Good morning Arya.” </em></strong>He raises his head a little and yawns widely. <em>“Good morning to you too.” </em>I turn around to be able to rub his back.</p><p><strong><em>“Good to see you two awake as well. We’re about to head out for the day.” </em></strong>I notice Skaftá standing next to us. <em>“Already?” </em>I stretch and rub my eyes. <em>“How late is it?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Approaching noon.” </em></strong>She replies quickly.</p><p><em>“Alright, alright.” </em>I flip the blanket aside and stand up. <em>“Just five minutes to get ready.” </em>I pick up my backpack and chuck it onto my back, then head over to my box to grab the jacket. <em>“Wait where did the other three go?” </em>I ask as I notice how empty the rest of the cave is. <strong><em>“They already headed off a little earlier but don’t worry. We planned on splitting up anyway. I’ll take you to gather some more spices and food today. Dorn can use the time to take a rest and fly some more.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod, then dig through the box and pull out my jacket. I pause for a moment, wondering if I truly need it but then decide that it couldn’t hurt to bring it with me. <em>“Worst come to worst I just shove it into my backpack.”</em> I walk up to Skaftá and wait for her to pick me up. <strong><em>“It might be a good idea to pack your knife, it could come in quite handy I recon.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Good thinking.” </em>I look around to find my knife and as I do notice the very wilted and crumpled basil from yesterday. <em>“Ah fuck, forgot about it.” </em>I pick it up and hold the sad remains of it in my hands. Just as I’m about to chuck it into the pile of burnt wood and ash I hear Skaftá speak to me. <strong><em>“You intended on drying that, anyway right? If you want, I can save it for you.” </em></strong>I hear rocks crunch as she takes half a step to get behind me. I let my head fall back to look up at her. <em>“How though? Magic?” </em>I hold the bundle up as far as I can, and she lowers her head to inspect it. <strong><em>“You know it.” </em></strong>She breathes in deeply and I can feel her mind focus on the basil.</p><p>Apparently, the spell she casts barely takes any energy as her eyes don’t visibly glow, but I can still feel the leaves dry up rapidly.</p><p>I notice the distinct smell of basil hanging in the air for just a moment and a second later Skaftá finishes her spell and smiles. <strong><em>“There you go. Dried it as best as I could. Don’t worry about the smell, driving water out of things has the tendency to take other things with it as well.” </em></strong></p><p>I slowly lower my arm and look at the dried remains left behind.</p><p><em>“It definitely looks like perfectly normal basil.” </em>I pick out a small leaf and eat it. <em>“Tastes normal too.” </em>I look up at Skaftá again. <em>“You guys are full of wonders, I wonder if there’ll come a day where you won’t surprise me with some new trick.” </em>I stash the leaves in a side pocket of the backpack. <strong><em>“Who knows.” </em></strong>Skaftá winks at me and wraps her tail around me.<em> “I don’t really have a container for it yet and if I do find a bunch of spices today, I might need to think about making some. Finally, stuff to do.” </em>I think to myself and happily smile. <em>“Life’s great.” </em></p><p>She carefully lowers me onto her back and starts heading out. As she does Dorn quickly runs beside her, takes off and flies up to back where he takes a seat right behind me, putting his front legs around my tummy and resting his head on my shoulder.</p><p>Skaftá stops for a moment when the water reaches her knees, she looks back at us to make sure we’re securely on her back, then she takes off and quickly flies up the cliff and over the edge.</p><p>She rises to some few hundred feet and keeps gliding in the same direction Scáthán took us yesterday. Dorn and I watch the landscape pass and look for signs of yesterday’s adventures.</p><p>Dorn is first to notice the group of trees he hid in and behind it you can still see some signs of our chase just after that. Though our tracks are rather faint, those left by Scáthán are still rather visible.</p><p>
  <em>“I wonder how no one has ever stumbled upon the tracks of a Dragon before. They persist for a while clearly.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“They do indeed linger for a while but in a day or two they’ll be almost completely gone and right now we’re over a hundred miles (~160km) from the nearest human settlement. The chances of one stumbling upon these tracks is low. And whenever we draw close to humans, we make sure to do something about out tracks. Fortunately, the roads you built help us get around when we can’t fly.” </em></strong>Skaftá answers my thoughts.</p><p>I nod slowly and look at the trail of broken grass once more before it leaves my field of view.</p><p>
  <em>“And then there was me, far away from humanity, stumbling upon her tracks by sheer dumb luck. Now that I think about it, whose footsteps, were they? Come to think of it, over the course of millennia I’m sure someone must have been in a similar situation.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Those tracks you found were mine, at that time Scáthán had already begun to hunt further out.” </em></strong>She adjusts her path a little and begins to drop towards the ground. <strong><em>“And there’ve been a few humans who came across our footprints. Those that followed them and found the dragon met an unfortunate end, those that didn’t were declared insane and never had their voices heard. Even if they took pictures, by the time others checked the tracks were long gone.” </em></strong>Skaftá lands swiftly and jogs along for a bit before coming to a stop. <strong><em>“Well not all met an early end by our claws, you didn’t, you got lucky.” </em></strong>Dorn hops off her back and glides to the ground while she picks me up and carefully places me in the grass as well. I smile and mouth a thank you, then take a look around.</p><p>We’re standing at the outer perimeter of a forest, to our right the trees grow ever denser and to our left the grass and shrubberies consumes every inch of soil. Up ahead I notice an arrangement of trees that looks familiar. <em>“Hold up, this is almost exactly where dad picked me up yesterday. How did she know… Wait, she can read my memories like an open book. There’s no trickery at play here.” </em>I glance at Skaftá for a split second then back at the trees. <em>“Anyway, time to get to work.” </em>I crack my knuckles and head off.</p><p>Dorn, who had been messing around with the grass next to me follow suit and soon overtakes me.</p><p>He climbs into the tree that I had found the herbs under yesterday and jumps around the canopy of it, nearly breaking off the branches several times.</p><p>The moment I walk under the tree he climbs onto a lower branch and tries to paw at my hair, though his paws are too short to reach me. I look at him and stick my tongue out, then sit down and place my backpack in front of me.</p><p>I run my hands through the plants around me, enjoying the different textures and taking in the smells that stuck to my hands afterwards. <em>“I smell some thyme for sure.” </em>I feel Dorn land next to me and he too sticks his head into the assorted herbs. While he’s busy I grab the knife from my backpack and pick up another bunch of basil and cut it off and throw it into my backpack. <em>“I’ll worry about sorting that shit later.” </em>I look around to spot some more plants that look like they might be edible herbs. <em>“If only I could remember what I read about herbs…” </em></p><p>Dorn suddenly raises his head again and looks at me. <strong><em>“I know as little about these plants as you do but I recall my mom knowing a bunch about what is edible and what not.” </em></strong>He looks over to our mom who had been lying down where she landed until now.</p><p><em>“How does she know? I can’t imagine her reading about it or something.” </em>I turn my head too to see her get up and walk over to us. <strong><em>“You don’t want to hear the details of it someone strayed a bit far off his trail when foraging.” </em></strong>She stands behind me and inspects the plants in the general area. <strong><em>“Those, those and those are fine to eat. You’ll probably find a bunch more around here. Looks like we ran into what used to be someone’s herb garden years ago. It’s quite surprising it survived this long.” </em></strong>A series of mental images flow into my mind, each one showing a plant growing nearby, I even notice part of Dorns tail in one of them. I give her a side eye and then start looking for the plants she showed me. <em>“I can easily imagine what happened to that poor person.” </em>The herb growing near Dorns tail is easy enough to spot, it’s another bunch of basil.</p><p>I quickly grab a large hand full and cut the stems an inch (2,5cm) above the ground, then throw it into my backpack. Just as I’m about to turn back and grab another hand full I notice that Dorn is busy with something as well. I tilt my head a little and watch him.</p><p>He grabs something with his mouth and then it looks like he’s trying to cut something with his claw.</p><p>Dorn lifts his head up and turns to me, a bunch of parsley in his mouth. He goes to drop it on my lap and surprisingly it’s very dry for him having held it in his mouth. <strong><em>“I said I owe you one so here’s me repaying you.” </em></strong>He immediately goes back to gather more of it.</p><p>I raise my eyebrows and shake my head. <em>“I did not expect this. Hell, I didn’t even expect him to do anything for me. Good to see that he is a…dragon of his word.” </em></p><p>I too resume foraging and it doesn’t take me long to clean out the surrounding area.</p><p>With one last batch of what is apparently dill according to what Skaftá told me I cut down the last bit of useable herb and throw it into my half full backpack. <em>“Alright, time to get a move on and look for more.” </em>I stand up straight and survey the surrounding area. From where I stand, I can’t quite identify what is and isn’t edible, but I reckon that with what I saw so far, I should be able to find more as I go. <strong><em>“I’ll do you one better Arya.” </em></strong>Skaftá stares at me intensely. <strong><em>“I can get into your head such that I see what you see and help you. I’ll leave control to you, all I would be doing is pointing things out to you and warn you if you pick something poisonous. You’ll remain in control of your body though.” </em></strong>I hesitate for a moment, unsure of how to reply. <em>“Uh, I guess? If it isn’t too much for you, I’d be fine with that.” </em>I try to picture how what she proposed would work but I don’t doubt that she could do something like that.</p><p>She nods slowly and I feel her presence in my mind grow stronger, piercing into just about every corner of consciousness, it reminds me of how it felt when she took over my body. Just before she takes over completely however, her presence stops growing.</p><p>I take a second to realize that I’m still in control and take a moment to make sure that my arms and legs still work the way they should. <em>“Is this it?” </em>I ask her, very unsure of what to make of this.</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, this is it. Just go about your business as usual. When I see something of interest come into view, I’ll tell you.” </em></strong>I nod slowly and take a cautious step away from her and Dorn. Having her fill almost every corner of my head feels weird, it feels like I should be hearing, feeling and seeing what she sees and yet there’s nothing coming from her, just this feeling of someone watching me.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“If it ever gets too much for you, say something. I know this is unusual for you. And to answer your concerns about not seeing and hearing what I see and hear, I’ve limited what gets through from my mind to yours. That’s why you’re only left with the feeling of a third-party spectator.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod once more and take a deep breath. <em>“Alright, thanks for clearing that up. I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine. I just need to get used to this.” </em>I take another more determined step forward and let my eyes wander across the landscape.</p><p>Almost immediately I feel Skaftás presence grow even stronger as she analyses what I see. <strong><em>“Stop, I see something over there. Smells like oregano to me, then to the         right of that you’ll find some marjoram.” </em></strong>I look left and right, unsure what she’s talking about. <strong><em>“Slightly to your left about fifteen feet (5m) away from here.” </em></strong>I turn slightly left and take a step forward and as I do, I feel her affirm that I’m headed the right way.</p><p>After a few steps I manage to spot what she was directing me towards and make a beeline for it.</p><p>I cut as much of the two herbs as I can hold and walk back to my backpack. As I’m about to pick it up and head back out I notice that Dorn too looks like he’s busy foraging as well, but his movements look a little unnatural. <em>“Is Skaftá doing the same with him?” </em>I watch him a little closer and yes, his movement is off.</p><p><strong><em>“You are correct. I’m helping him spot safe plants as well.” </em></strong>She answers my question, though she does sound absently minded. <em>“That is really impressive. That must take a lot of focus to essentially process visual stimuli from three sets of eyes.” </em>I turn around and look at her in awe. She still stands where she was before, watching over us with eagle eyes.</p><p><strong><em>“It does take a lot of concentration indeed but it’s not witchcraft.” </em></strong>She takes a while to answer, and when she does, I can notice a few brief pauses that usually aren’t there.</p><p><em>“Better not distract her more than I have to.” </em>I gradually walk towards the forest, letting my sight wander as I do to ensure that Skaftá gets to see as much of my surroundings as possible.</p><p>Again, it doesn’t take long for her to spot something and I quickly figure out what she meant and get to picking.</p><p>The three of us keep at it for what must be hours before my backpack gets full enough that even after drying, I’ll have plenty left. I sit down and take a look into it, checking what we managed to score today. <em>“Basil, lots of it. Oregano and Marjoram some sage and rosemary, dill, coriander, parsley and fucking onions. Wherever Dorn managed to dig that one up.” </em>I take a whiff of all the spices and feel my stomach twist in hunger. <em>“I should probably go find me some lunch, haven’t eaten in a while.” </em>Dorn returns with one last haul of herbs in his mouth. He sticks his head into my backpack to drop them off and quickly recoils as the smell overwhelms his nose. I can’t help but laugh a bit at his expression as he wrinkles his nose shakes his head to be rid of the smell.</p><p><em>“That was a bit much for your sensitive nose wasn’t it?” </em>I ask him, still smiling. Dorn nods and rubs his nose with one paw. <strong><em>“One or a few of them at a time I can handle but that was just too much.” </em></strong>His nose eventually calms down and he looks at his mother expectantly. <strong><em>“Now that Arya has her herbs and spices, what do we do next?” </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>“You come with me and have some exercise while Arya gathers herself some food.” </em></strong>She looks down at me. <strong><em>“I’ll come find you once we’re done. If you find yourself with some time on your hands feel free to do whatever.” </em></strong>I nod and look for the fruit trees I saw yesterday, then head off in that general direction.</p><p>In the meantime, Dorn and Skaftá both head off in a different direction, Dorn quickly taking flight to keep up with his mother. I watch them as we drift further and further apart and eventually, they disappear from my sight. <em>“Time to get going.” </em>I quicken my steps and march towards the apple trees from yesterday. Once I get there, I climb up the first one that looks to bear the edible fruits and get myself comfortable in the treetop. I lean over to snatch a couple apples out of the branches and enjoy the view as I eat my lunch.</p><p><em>“If the two of them will be out and about for as long as yesterday I’ll have lots of time to mess around.” </em>My thoughts wander as I try to make a list of things to try whilst I’m here. <em>“I wonder if I should try and zone out… I’m all alone but I’ve also been able to control myself reasonably well.” </em></p><p>For a moment my attention returns to the real world and I take a moment to look around, this time looking for signs of life around me. <em>“Truly there’s nothing around here, as mom said.” </em></p><p>I look up at the sky and shake my head. <em>“Best not tempt fate. It would be a shame to lose myself out here and by the sound of it there’s nothing they can do to help me once that happens.” </em></p><p>I decide to keep eating for now, then once I’m not distracted, I can resume my train of thoughts.</p><p>After losing track of how much I ate I eventually stop once my stomach starts giving me hell for overeating. I place on hand on my tummy and groan. <em>“Should have stopped two apples ago at least.” </em>I force a burp and sigh. <em>“And there I was a few days ago making fun of my brother for the same thing.” </em></p><p>Since my stomach is causing me too much pain to really do much, I figure it’s best to stay put and wait for things to calm down.</p><p>Once they do, a while later, I resume my thinking about stuff I could do.</p><p><em>“Before I start making any plans, I need to get myself some more tools. The stone knife does its job well enough, but I could do so much more with a proper one. A pocket knife might be an even better idea though. Same thing with the slab of rock I’m using as a pan. That thing is going to blow up on me at some point and even if it doesn’t, it still requires my parents to make me a new one every time we move.” </em>I grimace at the thought of tiny rock splinters perforating me as the rock explodes from the heat stress. <em>“How to lose your eyes in three easy steps…tough I wouldn’t be left permanently blind. If </em><em>Skaftá can fix me after breaking most of my ribcage, one arm and collapsing a lung then surely restoring my eyeballs is child’s play for her.” </em></p><p>I shake my head to be rid of the pictures. <em>“Not that I would want to risk it.” </em></p><p>My sight falls onto my backpack and I remember that I need to somehow store all the herbs after they’re dried. <em>“I guess I could ask them to steal me some plastic containers, though that might be asking too much. Hmmmm.” </em>I rub my chin and think about the different materials I could make containers from. <em>“I could try clay and have them fire it…actually no firing clay takes much too long and requires some form of temperature control. But since we’re on the topic of using heat to make stuff, what about glass? Surely they can manage the around </em><em>2700°F (1500°C) required for that.” </em></p><p>I imagine how I would dig up some sand and then one of them would blow an impressive column of fire at it and I could slowly watch the sand turn to glass.</p><p><em>“No, that’s not it either. Glass is too fragile for the rough environment and besides, unlike clay I can’t shape it easily. I guess I could make bowls by digging a hole and having them blow fire into it until the surface layer of sand melts to form a crude bowl and I could probably figure out how to make a lid too. But all these things would be really crude, and I would never be able to get a tight seal, besides the only thing to hold it shut would be gravity and I’m still left with the issue of glass being fragile. Also, I’m not even sure that I can turn your garden variety beach sand into a useful form of glass.” </em>With the common materials, plastic, glass and clay exhausted I try to think of what else I could use. <em>“Cloth might be a good idea, I can use the torn-up shirt back home to make some form of bags and use some more fabric to make a ribbon of sorts. I don’t have a lot of it available to me, but I have a hunch I’ll acquire more with time. Maybe scissors, a needle and some yarn would be useful.” </em>Then it hits me that there is a much more ubiquitous material available all around me. <em>“But what about wood? I could use a knife to cut it into shape, have my parents draw the water from it and use that? I’d need to hollow it out but I recon their claws could do a good job of that. Making a lid is easy too since wood can be shaped so easily. I could make one that’s a bit conical so I can just press it into the hole and have friction hold it in place.” </em>My eyes dart around, looking at the branches around me as I imagine myself nicking away at a piece of wood to form it into a can.</p><p>I quickly grab the knife from my backpack that I had hung over a nearby branch and try to saw one of the thicker ones nearby off. Since the rock isn’t the sharpest it takes me ages to get even halfway through and at that point, I decide I’m better off trying to snap it. I hold onto the thickest branch above it and do half a pull up to check if it can hold my weight. Then I make sure I got a firm grip and begin stomping and jumping onto the branch below me. The wood cracks and groans and after the third jump I feel it give way. I quickly pull myself up and blindly feel for another nearby branch to stand on with my feet. Once I’m on a safe branch again I check the damage I did. The branch is only held on by about a fingers worth of wood anymore and hangs down the side of the tree, ready to drop if I just cut into it a bit more. “Ha-ha, take that.” I mutter to myself and grab my knife again.</p><p>As I do, I notice a slight sting in my joints. <em>“Oh no.” </em>I look at my fingers to see a blister ready to form. <em>“Well this is going to be fun very soon.” </em></p><p>After a bit more sawing the wood gives way and the branch falls to the ground with a bunch of clattering and cracking. I follow it down to the ground, holding the knife between my teeth and trying to ignore the pain in my left hand as I climb.</p><p>As soon as I get onto the ground, I start cutting the branch down to a more manageable size.</p><p>Since the base is thicker than my arm it still takes me ages to saw through and this time, I can’t even use gravity to my advantage. Before long the blisters on my hand break open and my wrist is trying to kill me with pain. But I keep going and eventually make it far enough to be able to break the rest off.</p><p><em>“I need to get a better tool to saw trough this shit.” </em>I shake my hands and such on the now open blisters on my index finger. The burning immediately grows stronger, making me inhale sharply and grit my teeth. <em>“Well so much about doing anything productive today.” </em>I look at the piece of wood I managed to cut free and pick it up with my less damaged hand. I turn and poke at it, trying to figure out how to get a hole into it. I try to cut pieces out of the centre with my knife but all I achieve is nearly stabbing myself. <em>“Nope, I need some help with this.” </em>I look back at the remains of the branch and ponder if I should cut another piece out of it. A glance at my hand answers that question for me, there’s a couple blisters that broke open and the skin itself looks rather reddish and irritated. <em>“Yeah no, not going to happen.”</em> Instead I take the piece I got and take it with me up the tree. Going up with one hand causing me lots of pain whenever I try to grip something takes me almost fifteen minutes but eventually, I make it.</p><p>I carefully put the soon to be can beneath all the herbs we gathered today and put the knife away as well.</p><p><em>“Time to resume thinking then.”</em> I lean back once again and rest my hands on my lap.</p><p>
  <em>“Since I already have a bunch of herbs, I might want to look into getting some spices as well.” </em>
</p><p>I take a look at the surrounding plants, none strike me as any that could bear spice. <em>“Weirdly enough I haven’t come across anything at all. No peppers, no lemons, no nothing. Maybe I just wasn’t looking close enough.” </em>I begin to compile a list of spices that I should be able to find in the wild.</p><p><em>“Oh, and let’s not forget about the most fundamental spice, salt. That one should be really easy to get since I have a whole ocean literally out the front entrance. But how do I go about evaporating lots of water? I’d need to get it into some sort of container first. Also, I don’t really want all the other junk from the ocean mixed in with my salt.” </em>I wrinkle my forehead and purse my lips.</p><p><em>“This will need more planning.” </em>I rub my chin. <em>“I could use the old shirt to filter the water first, get one of my parents to evaporate it, now I just need a way to separate it. Maybe if I’m lucky it forms some pools near the entrance of the cave when the tide is low. But how would I filter it there?” </em></p><p>I close my eyes and try to visualize how I could go about things. <em>“Hmm no, once it’s in a pool I can’t filter it easily without some form of container. I could use one of the wood ones.</em></p><p>
  <em>Wait why am I making this so hard for myself? Since I need one of my parents to help me anyway, I could just ask them to aid me with magic. That might also remove the need to strain out the other garbage manually, but I don’t know how difficult a spell for that would be.” </em>
</p><p>I open my eyes again and survey the area once more, as expected nothing had changed. <em>“No use thinking about it too hard yet, I’ll have to ask later.” </em></p><p>An odd sound catches my attention, I can’t see the source from where I sit so, I stand up and try to stick my head out the top of the canopy. In the far distance I notice a bunch of brownish dots stampeding through the grass. <em>“Boars?” </em>I squint but it doesn’t help. <em>“Could very well be. Welp that means I won’t be leaving my perch till they come back.” </em>I sit back down and stretch. <em>“Come to think of it. Why have they decided that it’s suddenly fine to leave me all on my own for hours. Besides what wildlife could do to me during this time I could also very well decide to leg it.” </em></p><p>I press my lips together as I try to come up with a reason. <em>“Maybe they just trust me enough now? Or maybe we’re so far away from humanity that they could either let nature run their course or track my down way before I get close to any settlements.” </em>I shrug. <em>“Either way it doesn’t explain why they think I couldn’t get hurt by the wildlife around here. I guess I can consider myself fortunate that I didn’t get attacked yesterday…” </em>I pause to look at where the boars used to be. <em>“Or that there is nothing that can climb and get to me today.” </em></p><p>I feel panic starting to rise within me. <em>“Honestly I’d rather they come back sooner than later.” </em></p><p>Trying to sense their minds returns nothing and judging by how far the sun is from the horizon it might be a while before they come back. <em>“And there goes me wanting to be all independent and not relying on them.” </em>A chuckle escapes me. <em>“Then again, looking at it now, that never was a reasonable thought. I couldn’t be entirely self-sufficient out here and be safe from all dangers. I don’t have the claws or scales they do. Neither am I nearly as strong or enduring as them.” </em></p><p>I smile weakly and take a deep breath. <em>“I guess relying on them a little is fine, I’ll do my best to lift my own weight when it comes to food. Then they can keep me warm and safe.” </em>I close my eyes and think back to last night and how nice it was to have my brother and sister snuggled up to me, how we all kind of kept each other warm and our parents watched over us, leaving us without a single worry about our safety.</p><p>A content sigh leaves my mouth and I open my eyes again, now anxiously anticipating the return home. <em>“How could it take me so long to figure out that I didn’t have to be their equal in all regards? Sure, they treat me as one of theirs but that doesn’t mean I have to do all the things they do. They’ve told me this time and time again as well. I guess from here on I should just stop trying to be like my siblings. I won’t ever be.” </em>Thinking these thoughts out loud does hurt the little pride I have and a bittersweet smile forms on my lips. <em>“Doesn’t keep me from trying to become better though.” </em></p><p>I shake my head and take a deep breath. <em>“Where did I get the hubris of having to be equal to the best from? I never was good at anything, much less the best or anything close to that.” </em></p><p>Before I manage to throw myself into another tailspin like I used to, I shove those thoughts aside.</p><p>
  <em>“No matter. Where were we?” </em>
</p><p><em>“Ah right, making a list of things I need or want to make. What did we have so far?” </em>I turn my eyes skyward and try to recall my previous monologue.</p><p><em>“A knife or two, a pocket knife would do the job too. Some loose fabric, yarn and a needle…” </em>My thoughts falter as I hit the end of my mental list unexpectedly early. <em>“I felt like I had a longer bucket list…” </em></p><p>I idly stare into the air for a moment. <em>“Oh right, I wanted to figure out how to get my hands on some salt and look for some other seasoning things for cooking.” </em>I rub my temples in hopes of aiding my memory. <em>“Oh! Thinking of cooking. A pot and maybe a pan would be godsends.” </em></p><p>
  <em>“Come to think of it, those might be easier to make myself. All I’d need is iron ore and charcoal, I think. Or maybe if dragons can supply ludicrous enough temperatures to maybe avoid the use of a reducing agent altogether.” </em>
</p><p>I nod slowly and try recalling what I had read about prehistoric means of making iron. <em>“If I do get my hands on a pot, I can also get to preserving stuff. No wait. Now that I think about it, my parents can probably do just that without requiring a pot.” </em></p><p>With pursed lips I try once more to recall things I might still need.</p><p><em>“I guess that does it for now, get a knife, fabric, yarn, needles, some iron or a pot.” </em>I nod to myself.</p><p><em>“It’s not a lot but for the time being it’ll keep me busy.” </em>I rub my hands together    in anticipation.</p><p><em>“Also, I mustn’t forget that I still need to get better at controlling my mind and eventually at some point in the future figure out magic.” </em>I happily smile and breathe in deeply. <em>“Exciting times, not that it hasn’t been before. I guess I’m just more aware of it now? It is easy to take things for granted very quickly.” </em></p><p>I stick my head out of the canopy and take another look around, intentionally focussing on the beauty of my surroundings. <em>“Just like I take these beautiful sceneries for granted by now.” </em>I watch the grasses to my left wave in the wind for a bit, then slowly turn my head to the right and watch as more and more trees and bushes pop out the ground, slowly taking over, eventually turning into a full-blown forest. Some orange and yellow is speckled throughout as autumn has spread throughout, soon the leaves will begin to fall, covering the world in a nice orange blanket. Above the ground the sky has a few bands of clouds floating throughout, the sun’s approaching the last quarter of the firmament. <em>“Can’ t be long before they come back now.” </em>I decide to take in the view a little longer, maybe I’ll even spot mom and Dorn coming back.</p><p>Occasionally, as I’m slowly turning to get a good look around, I shut my eyes and listen to my mind for any signs of either of them.</p><p><em>“I wonder if I’ll see or sense them first. Judging by how close mom had to be for me to sense her I recon I’ll see them long before.” </em>For a moment I lose my focus and accidentally try turning with my eyes closed and miss a step. I yelp as my other foot loses its grip and I begin falling. Desperately, I grasp at the branches around me, but my inertia is too great and they either snap or slip from my grasp. Leaves and twigs get slapped into my face as I fall, then suddenly they stop and a second later I slam into the ground with a thud. Stars dance across my vision and everything turns blurry and dark.</p><p>Somehow, I still remain conscious and, after a few moments, try to sit up.</p><p>I groan and rub my aching head, the impact leaving my bones aching and my head spinning.</p><p>The first clear thought that comes to my mind is. <em>“Fuck, there were boars nearby, don’t want to draw their attention.” </em>Still dazed and confused but fuelled by a rising panic, I try to climb back into the tree. But my coordination is so screwed I instead fall right back down, nearly knocking me out for real this time as my head is first to hit the floor.</p><p>It takes me a solid minute before I can muster to coordination to get up and try again. I try to push aside the pain and panic to at least make it to a lower branch. Still I misstep and nearly lose my grip several times but after a much too long time I manage to get onto the lowest branch. Probably not high enough to truly be out of reach if something wanted to get to me but hopefully high enough to dissuade whatever might be drawn towards me by the noises I made.</p><p>Once I had some time to recover from my fall and my mind cleared up a bit, I carefully survey my surroundings, only to notice that there’s nothing in sight. <em>“When was the last time I even saw those boars? Must have been half an hour ago or even longer.” </em> I sigh and look at my hands and arms, they’re covered in scratches and gashes among loads of dirt, bark and grass stains. Most of my wounds had already scabbed over. <em>“Well…This means I’ll stay put then.” </em>I rest myself against the tree trunk and idly stare at nothing in particular.</p><p>As the sun sets the temperature drops rather quickly and the wind freshens up a bunch. <em>“Please be back soon.” </em>I think to myself and the first about them abandoning me here because I’m too much of a burden start.</p><p>I shake my head lightly slap myself. <em>“Shut up.” </em>I tell myself and do my best to supress those thoughts. Fortunately, they aren’t too persistent, and I can easily enough distract myself from them.</p><p>And as luck would have it, I notice Skaftá and Dorn approaching not long after. I lose sight of them for just a moment as the sun retreats behind the horizon but once my eyes adjust to the darkness, I can see their outlines again.</p><p>Somehow, Dorn is the first one to get to me and instead of stopping at the bottom of the tree he straight up runs up the side of it, stopping when he reaches a branch above me where he proceeds to hang his head down and look at me upside down. <strong><em>“Hey sister, we’re back.” </em></strong>He smiles and hangs himself from the branch like a sloth. I smile back and shake my head as I reach out to pet his head. <em>“I noticed you were. Looks like you had a great day.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Indeed.” </em></strong> He replies and pulls himself back on top of the branch he’s clinging to.</p><p>I tilt my head back to watch him and notice my backpack up in the canopy. <em>“Err, while you’re up there, can you grab something for me?” </em>I ask him. Without even having to point at it he already knows what I mean, and he starts climbing. I watch him closely, quite impressed by how well he can climb even though it’s his first time. Or at least the first time I’ve seen him climb.</p><p>He quickly gets to my backpack, grabs the top handle with his mouth and then starts looking for a way down. I can feel him thinking hard as he tries to come up with a to climb down and then suddenly, he realizes that he can just jump out of the tree and fly down. Within a few seconds he goes from cowering up there, to preparing himself for take-off and moments later he breaks out of the leaves and spreads his wings to slowly glide towards the ground, landing just below me.</p><p>I direct a quick mental thank you his way and ready myself for the way down as well.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t move Arya, let me first take care of you.” </em></strong> I hear Skaftá say to me.</p><p>Her voice makes me jump and spin around, I hadn’t heard her approach, nor had I sensed her presence. She stands right next to the tree, her head lowered just enough to be level with me, she holds a dead chicken clasped between her lips and has her eyes trained on me. <strong><em>“Don’t worry, we would never abandon you, no matter how long we may leave you to your own devices, rest assured that we’ll always come back to get you. Or if you ever need us, just call out our names, we’ll be coming your way as soon as we can.” </em></strong>She speaks with a soft voice and an endearing look in her eyes.</p><p><strong><em>“That’s right. And even if my parents decide to leave you behind, I’ll be sure to come back to you. Then we can make our own way through this world.” </em></strong>Dorn quickly adds.</p><p>I smile warmly, feeling loved like this still felt weird to me. <em>“I don’t know what I did to deserve you lot, but I can’t say I mind.” </em>I try to move closer to her, but the branch almost immediately starts bending to an uncomfortable degree and I quickly retreat backwards.</p><p><strong><em>“Didn’t I tell you to not move?” </em></strong>For a moment she looks rather annoyed but then her smile quickly returns. <strong><em>“No matter. You may wonder what this here chicken is about, your brother caught it for you so you can have something for dinner and to try you herbs and spices on.” </em></strong>She lets go of it and Dorn catches it in mid-air. <strong><em>“You’ll have to share some with me though.” </em></strong>Dorn says whilst looking up at me. I laugh and shake my head. <em>“It’s not like I could eat all of that before it went stale.”</em> I take a closer look at the chicken and try to think about how I’m going to take it apart. <em>“Could probably use the feathers to make a pillow, or as a quill to write. Though I don’t have much use for either, my siblings and parents usually leave me without a need for a pillow and at the moment I don’t have anything to write on, nor do I possess any ink…” </em>I shrug. <em>“Worst case, I use them as fuel for a fire, rest can and will be eaten one way or another.”  </em></p><p><strong><em>“Before you lose yourself completely in your thought, can I get you out of there? And could you let me see your arms for a moment.” </em></strong>She tilts her head a little and waits for me to make a move. Then moves her head closer as I carefully extend my arms towards her, palms facing upwards.</p><p><strong><em>“How do you manage to keep doing this to yourself? At this rate you’ll be a bigger threat to yourself than we or any wildlife could ever be.” </em></strong>She intensely stares at my arms and I think I can see a dim glow in her eyes. Seconds later my arms begin itching like crazy and I struggle to supress the need to scratch them. At the same time, I can watch the scratches and gashes disappear and the red and irritated parts fade.</p><p>After what felt like an eternity the itching dies down and Skaftá withdraws her head. <strong><em>“There you go, that should be the worst of it.” </em></strong></p><p>I instinctively scratch the places that were previously itching the worst, then take a look at my arms, turning them as I do. My skin looks completely fine now, the stains of grass and dirt still remain and the joints in my fingers still feel a little stiff and sore but it’s nothing compared to how it felt before.</p><p><em>“Thank you so very much mom.” </em>I close and open my fists a few times in hopes of making my joints feel better and try to wipe some of the dirt off me. <strong><em>“No matter little one. Now it’s time for us to head back home.” </em></strong></p><p>Without wasting a second, I move to climb off my branch, I had been wanting to go home for a while now and I didn’t want to waste another second.</p><p>Sadly, my legs weren’t as eager, sitting hunched up here in the cold had left my legs stiff and slow, leading the upper half of my body much faster than my legs. Just before I lose my balance, I try to get my legs to obey me, but they only do so sluggishly, only worsening my situation.</p><p>I end up falling towards the ground face first. <em>“Here we go again.” </em>I think to myself as I brace myself for the impact. <em>“At least the fall will be shorter this time.” </em></p><p>Suddenly my fall is abruptly stopped, I feel my arms and shin being pinched between something sharp. A few seconds late I can feel a warm liquid soak through to my knees and the back of my shirt. <em>“Oh no…” </em>I keep my eyes tightly shut as I feel myself being lowered to the ground, turned on my side and finally dropped onto the grass.</p><p>I stay still for a few seconds longer before opening one eye just a bit. Skaftá and Dorn stand above me, their eyes fixated on me. Very slowly I straighten myself out and get back up. <em>“Did what I think happened just happen?” </em>I think to myself while looking at Skaftá.</p><p><strong><em>“It was either that or let you hit the ground unimpeded. I know you don’t like it but it’s the only choice I had.” </em></strong>I can sense that she’s quite annoyed because she couldn’t find a better solution.</p><p>I take a deep breath and step closer to her while reaching out to touch her snout. <em>“Don’t worry, I knew I wasn’t in any danger. I’ll probably get used to it. Slowly but surely. After all you don’t have many other ways of grabbing things and I guess having the focus to consciously cast magic in such a moment isn’t something you can plan on either.” </em></p><p>I gently brush my hand over her scales and offer her a warm smile. <strong><em>“You’re right, still I would prefer to have done it a different way.” </em></strong>She lowers her head and brushes it against me, nearly knocking me off my feet.</p><p><strong><em>“No matter, we should be making our way home. It’s rather late already.” </em></strong>She lifts her head up and begins to walk off, but before she can move much, I try to hold her back.</p><p>I can feel her trying to push my hand aside, but once she notices that I’m not giving way easily she stops and turns her eyes towards me. I can feel her probing my mind to see what I want from her.</p><p><strong><em>“So, you really were serious about that.” </em></strong>She turns her head towards me fully.</p><p>I nod and take a deep breath. <em>“I am, I much rather get used to it by you picking me up with your mouth when I know what’s going on than otherwise.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Alright, but don’t push yourself for anyone’s sake.” </em></strong>I can sense a slight amount of disbelief washing into my mind from her. <em>“Heh, I’m not quite sure I know what I’m getting myself into.”</em></p><p>I take off my jacket, then raise both arms and nod as her sign to go ahead. Skaftá hesitates for a moment then puts on an earnest expression.</p><p>She opens her mouth just wide enough to fit me sideways, probably as a measure to not let me stare down her throat. I feel my heart quicken and unease sets in. <em>“It’s okay Arya, stay calm, there’s no danger here.” </em>I turn my sight straight and stare off into the distance. I feel Skaftá very carefully place her jaws around me and close them just enough to let her teeth poke me.</p><p>She pauses for a moment probably to give me time to get used to it. In that moment I start feeling her saliva soak through my clothes, her tongue against my back and the warm and humid air from within her mouth.</p><p>I take a deep breath and close my eyes momentarily. <em>“Okay, this is fine, I’ve been in worse situations with them a dozen times.” </em>I look down and slowly open my eyes to see her jaws clasped around me. I can feel her eyes on me, while she’s waiting for me to give her the further go ahead. I nod staidly and almost immediately feel her teeth dig in a little more to ensure a proper grip, then I’m lifted off my feet and she quickly moves me onto her back where she immediately let go off me. She moves her head back a little and looks me up and down. <em>“I’m fine don’t worry.” </em>I look down myself to see a good chunk of my shirt drenched but somehow without a single hole in it.</p><p><em>“See wasn’t that bad.” </em>I say and raise my head to look at her. She smiles and nods. <strong><em>“Not bad at all.” </em></strong>Her eyes begin glowing and I feel my shirt dry in a matter of seconds. <em>“Thank you very much.” </em>I put my jacket back on, crawl up to her neck and wrap my arms around it. Both as a hug and to signal her that I’m ready for her to fly off. Before she does, Dorn lands on her back, chicken in his mouth and dragging my backpack behind him with his tail. He sits down right behind me, wrapping his front paws around me.</p><p>I feel the feathers of the chicken tickle the back of my neck. I reflexively try to scratch my neck and almost knock it out of Dorns mouth. <strong><em>“Hey, careful.”</em></strong> He says, trying to sound upset.</p><p>“Oops.” I mutter as I scratch myself. <em>“How about you just give it to me for the time being, so it doesn’t end up dangling in my neck all the time?” </em>He hesitates a moment, then places the dead chicken between me and Skaftás neck. <strong><em>“Make sure to not lose it.” </em></strong>He says to me.</p><p><em>“How could I? It’s a gift from you after all. Thank you very much for that and always looking out for me.” </em>I reply. Dorn rubs his head against mine. <strong><em>“No problem sister.” </em></strong>He gets himself comfortable and I return my attention to our surroundings.</p><p>Skaftá had already started walking back home but now that we’re both firmly holding onto her, she speeds up until she’s sprinting across the land and takes off.</p><p>She rises a few hundred feet (~150m) into the sky and enters a steady pattern of gliding, then flapping her wings a few times, then gliding some more.</p><p>As the three of us sail across the night sky, only the half-moon lending us some light, I wonder if dad and the other two had already returned home.</p><p><strong><em>“They probably returned a while before sunset. Aonar and Coille don’t have the stamina Dorn has.” </em></strong>Skaftá answers my thoughts.</p><p><em>“That makes sense, they’re only a few days old after all.” </em>I resume watching the ground pass below us.</p><p>Some fifteen minutes into our way home the cold winds start getting to me even after closing my jacket and doing my best to keep the wind out of it. <em>“Hopefully it won’t be much longer.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Another ten minutes, I’ll try to make it five.” </em></strong>Skaftá rapidly speeds up, soon the wind pulls on me hard enough to make holding on require quite some effort.</p><p><em>“That didn’t make it any better.” </em>I think to myself as I try to make myself as small as I can to avoid the wind.</p><p>Suddenly the air stops moving around me, impossibly still even if we weren’t flying at the moment.</p><p>I notice a slight glow reflecting off of the scales near Skaftás eyes. <em>“Oh, thank you so much for that spell, I might have caught a cold or worse otherwise.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“No problem.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies tersely, she’s rather focussed on maintaining speed and keeping the spell up.</p><p>Just as promised, after about five minutes I notice something that resembles the cliffs that I know all too well by now. Skaftá begins to slow down as she enters a steady glide, dropping close to the ground as the ocean draws near.</p><p>Once we’re over the edge of the cliff she continues onward for a bit, then slowly turns around and angles herself at the entrance of the cave.</p><p>With the moon ahead of us, the cliff looks like a solid wall of blackness. <em>“I sure hope she knows where to go…” </em>I rest my head against her neck and close my eyes, I can’t bear watching us fly towards a wall like that.</p><p>A minute later the soundscape around me changes, I can suddenly hear the echo of waves and the sound of her wading through water. I carefully open my eyes to see that we’re surrounded by darkness now, only some slight shimmers reflect off the ocean behind us.</p><p><strong><em>“Welcome home.” </em></strong>I hear Scáthán say to the three of us.</p><p>Behind me I can hear Dorn jump off Skaftás back and glide deeper into the cave while she takes her time walking inside.</p><p>Since I’m currently blind as a mole I decide to stay put until one of them either conjures a ball of light or picks me off her back. Once Skaftá rounds the corner it becomes even darker, to the point where I can’t even see the chicken in front of me. <em>“Uh, someone? Help?” </em>I think to myself, not directing it at anyone in particular. A dim yellowy light suddenly begins to shine from within one of the dragon’s mouths, judging by the size it has to be Scáthán, a second later a small formless yellow ball of light slips through his teeth and rises a few meters into the air, growing brighter as it does.</p><p>With the cavern dimly lit by the bright yellow light I can finally see again. It had indeed been Scáthán who summoned the ball of light, not that his sheer size hadn’t made it obvious.</p><p>Coille lies beside his head, curled up and looking rather exhausted, a quick glance at her mind confirms my suspicion. Aonar sits atop his head as if he was proclaiming victory over him.</p><p>Dorn had landed next to our bed and had put my backpack by its side, then got comfortable. <strong><em>“I see you three had a good day as well.” </em></strong>Scáthán says while he watches Skaftá walk to her usual resting place. <strong><em>“Well mostly good at least.” </em></strong>He says while looking at me. I smile and laugh a little. <em>“Due to no one’s fault but my own. Besides, it wasn’t that bad.” </em></p><p>Skaftá lies down and once she’s gotten herself comfortable, I see her raise her tail to put me down.</p><p>I quickly grab the chicken just in time before her tails wraps around me and I’m lifted into the air.</p><p>She carefully places me on the ground and lightly pats my head with the tip of her tail before withdrawing it. I give her a nod of gratitude and go to throw my jacket back into the box and walk over to where Dorn has curled up.</p><p>I sit down beside him, place the hen by the bedside and open my backpack to get to sorting through what I had gathered, but first I take out the knife and block of wood. Looking at it now that there’s no pain in my hands to distract me I notice that I had done a much worse job than I thought. The “knife” is basically done for and what I had thought to be a decently smooth piece of wood was really rather craggy. <em>“Welp, that really leaves me with no option but to get some proper tools.” </em>Dejected, I drop them by the side of my backpack, the rock blade shattering on impact and the wood rolling some feet away. Dorn nudges me gently just as I reach into the backpack to grab some of the herbs. <strong><em>“Why so bothered? You did a pretty decent job with the tools you had at your disposal. Besides, that looks perfectly useable, especially for a first test.” </em></strong>He eyes the piece of wood, then looks up at me. <strong><em>“Also are you really going to start sorting things now? It’s so late already.” </em></strong>I look towards the caves entrance and remember how dark it was outside but then remember that it’s autumn already. <em>“It’s not all that late yet, the sun just set early.” </em>I sense that the time wasn’t the real reason he’s trying to get me to go to sleep.</p><p><em>“If you want to snuggle just say it, no need to beat around the bush.” </em>I rub his head and close the backpack again. He murmurs happily and pushes his head into my hand. <strong><em>“It’s not just that, I’m also tired and would much prefer falling asleep with you by my side.” </em></strong>Dorn yawns widely and arches his back. <em>“Alright, I think I can do that for you.” </em>I smile widely and try to scoot under the blanket but can’t because Dorn is lying on it. <em>“Would you kindly?” </em>I gesture at him to move aside.</p><p>He does so sluggishly, trying to make it look like he’s too tired to even move but the moment I lift up the blanket and roll under it he somehow manages to not only get under it but also position himself such that I wind up smoothly resting against his side, with his neck under my head.</p><p>I narrow my eyes and lie my head down. <em>“Not so sleepy, now are we?” </em>Dorn sheepishly avoids my eyes and grins. <strong><em>“Maybe.” </em></strong>He shuffles his wing over me and adjusts the blanket a little with his tail and mouth. <strong><em>“There we go.” </em></strong>He rests his head on the blanket such that he can keep his eyes on me. <em>“Guess I’m not going anywhere now, am I?” </em>Dorn shakes his head and smiles. <strong><em>“You wouldn’t want to, would you?” </em></strong></p><p><em>“No, I don’t think I would…Dad, I think you can turn off the light now. Thank you very much.” </em>I can sense Scátháns bemusement at the whole situation as the yellow light fades away and eventually fizzles out. With absolute darkness enveloping us again I shut my eyes and begin waiting for sleep to overcome me.</p><p>As I lay there waiting, I begin to feel around with my mind to see who’s still awake as I could occasionally hear some noises. Coille and Skaftá appear to be soundly sleeping, both exhausted to varying degrees, Dorn is in the process of drifting off and Aonar and Scáthán seem to be decently awake still. Though it does look like Aonar is getting ready to sleep soon too, which must have been the source of the sounds.</p><p>Before long only me and Scáthán remain awake, both of us spending our time listening in on the others dreams. <em>“This feels weird, like I’m some weird ethereal stalker…” </em>I retreat back into my own head and simply wait until I doze off. it couldn’t be long anymore, my thoughts felt sluggish already and there was this heaviness to my body that came right before drifting off, yet I somehow was still awake. Probably at least partly due to the cold that had crept into my bones while we were flying home. I had been feeling it for a while now, but it was never enough to bother me but now it was enough to keep me awake. The worst part is that I don’t even feel physically cold, yet there is this discomfort that I can only describe as feeling cold and the warmth coming from my brother doesn’t help much.</p><p><strong><em>“Unable to sleep huh?” </em></strong>Scátháns voice suddenly breaks through the fog in my mind. I reply by slowly nodding, then yawning. <strong><em>“Don’t worry, I’ll help you out.” </em></strong>Suddenly I feel a great warmth flow through my body, like the air coming out of an oven on a cold winter day. Very, very warm, bordering on uncomfortable. In a matter of seconds, the cold is swept from my body, leaving me warm and cosy, snuggled up to my brothers’ side. <strong><em>“I know you very much enjoy sleeping like that but as the days grow colder, I worry that the blanket won’t do. Even with both Dorn and Coille by your side. It might be for the best if you two come sleep by our side as well.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“But isn’t this fine as well? I’m not cold right now and for the last few days, once I got warmed up, I was fine. I know it’s going to get colder but it’s just going to take longer till I warm up right? Besides, even if not, couldn’t you just cast a quick spell like this? That way I don’t run the risk of getting hurt.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“If only it were that simple. Sadly, it’s not safe for us to keep a consciously cast spell going while we sleep, so while this might be a fix for now. Once the temperatures approach freezing the blanket won’t keep the heat in well enough to keep you warm throughout the night and we can’t use a spell to keep you warm either. Another solution might be to get you another blanket or other things to keep you warmer but the less stuff you have to carry around the better.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>His reasoning does make sense to me, I don’t know what would happen if the spell went haywire but knowing how much energy they can put into them I can see how a runaway spell would get dangerous. <em>“So, what you’re suggesting is I make a habit out of sleeping by your or Skaftás side so you can use your bodies to keep me warm since spells aren’t safe.” </em></p><p>I sense him affirm my thoughts. <strong><em>“Indeed, if we did lose control of a spell to keep you warm, you’d either end up burnt to a crisp or frozen solid, possibly in a matter of seconds. And we can’t bring back the dead. Thus, both I and Skaftá think it’s for the best the two of you sleep beside us like your siblings. You don’t even need to sleep separately from your brother.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“So, to keep it short, all you want me and Dorn to do is, instead of sleeping here, is crawl under your wing or whatever so you can keep us warm.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, though if you prefer not to, we can always find a different arrangement. Now if you don’t mind, it’s time for me to sleep as well. You should soon too.” </em></strong>He says and the warmth flowing through me fades away, it had done its job anyway. I am warm and comfy now and the blanket will keep me warm for the rest of the night. <em>“Thank you very much Scáthán. Sleep well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” </em>I shift around once more. <strong><em>“Good night to you too, sweet dreams and I’ll see you tomorrow too.” </em></strong> And with that my mind falls silent again, and not much long after I drift off to sleep.</p><p>For once I don’t end up joining my brother in his dreams. Instead my mind stays mostly blank throughout the night, or maybe the dreams just don’t stay in my memory. Occasionally I do still sense my brother’s presence but it’s brief, as if he’s just checking in. At some point in the middle of night I suddenly wake up, slowly opening my eyes and looking around to see nothing but darkness.</p><p><em>“Huh?” </em>I listen closely to my surroundings but there’s nothing out of the ordinary, I can only hear my brother’s breath and the waves. I shift around a little while thinking about why I woke up. It hadn’t been any sudden movements around me, nor any weird sounds. I go to rub my eyes and when my hands touch my face, I notice that it’s ice cold. Befuddled, I place both hands on my cheeks and indeed, they both feel like ice. I stick one arm up into the air and notice a gentle flow of cold air. <em>“Well that explains it.” </em>I quickly put my hands under the blanket again and try to think of a solution. By now I can also feel the side effects of the cold, the inside of my nose hurts, my throat is feeling sore, my neck barely cooperates when I try to move, and my skull feels like it’s pushing on my brain.</p><p>I decide the only real option is have is to get the blanket over my head since Dorn still has me trapped next to him. I carefully pull the blanket up and just before I fully cover my head, I notice that now my feet are sticking out. I grunt and roll my eyes, then try to very gently pull my knees closer to my chest. Unfortunately, Dorn wakes up as I do and sticks his head under the covers. <strong><em>“What’s wrong sister?” </em></strong>He asks with half closed eyes. Before I can even answer I feel him probe my mind for a split second to get his answer. <strong><em>“Oh no, can I help?” </em></strong></p><p>I slowly shake my head and put both hands on my cheek again to warm them up. <em>“Not really, I think.” </em>I note that I generally am not feeling as warm as I did when I fell asleep. <em>“If I had any doubts about Scátháns words this would settle it.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“If you want, we can move to my parents, since we’re both awake anyway.” </em></strong> I consider his offer for a moment but decide that I’m too lazy to get up, maybe if it gets even colder, I’ll consider it.</p><p>I feel him move a little so he can bring his head closer to mine and gently nudge me. When his snout makes contact with me, he recoils a little. <strong><em>“Are you sure you don’t want to. That is unnaturally cold.” </em></strong>He lightly pushes my hand aside and presses his head against my cheek, at first his scales barely feel warmer than my skin but after a while they begin to warm up.</p><p><em>“How.” </em>I quietly wonder to myself.</p><p>Dorn’s scales shift against my skin as he smiles. <strong><em>“Not quite magic, just my body not losing heat to the environment anymore.” </em></strong>I peer at him. <em>“That shouldn’t make such a difference, not this quickly anyway.” </em>Dorn’s eyes take on a sheepish look as he starts grinning. <strong><em>“Shhhh.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“So, it’s magic huh, why would he be so secretive about it?” </em>I furrow my eyebrows. <strong><em>“Our parents don’t want me to consciously use magic yet since I’m more prone to slipping up at this age. I’ll probably get scolded tomorrow. But I don’t see the harm such a small spell could do. Especially since the amount of energy I have access to is so small.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Oh…” </em>I purse my lips. <em>“Well there’s probably a reason why they said that. After all, if even a small amount of energy can have big effects.” </em>Unease settles into my mind. <strong><em>“Oh, don’t worry too much, the spell is already over. But you have a point… But I couldn’t just keep you lying here like that.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Maybe just warn me in the future so I don’t accidentally distract you.” </em>I rub his head, then wrap my arms around his neck. He murmurs quietly. <strong><em>“Okay.” </em></strong></p><p>Dorn yawns and smacks his lips, then rubs his head against mine some more. <strong><em>“Mind if I go back to sleep?” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Not at all brother. I wouldn’t mind going back to sleep either.”  </em>I yawn as well and shut my eyes.</p><p>Dorn falls asleep almost immediately while I take a few minutes longer. Fortunately, my head is already feeling better and so are my nose and windpipe. The only thing bothering me now is the stuffy air under the blanket. Still, I eventually drift off and the rest of the night barely feels like more than a blink as when I open my eyes again, I hear the sounds of one of our parents moving outside. <em>“Is it morning already?” </em>I peek out from under the blanket and indeed, it’s already light outside, but it hasn’t been for long. The air is still cold, and the light has a bit of an orange tinge to it. I stretch and yawn, then retreat under the blanket again since it’s too cold outside.</p><p>My movements have woken up Dorn as well who also yawns widely and stretches, though he doesn’t mind the cold and instead of hiding again crawls out from under the blanket.</p><p>A little upset that my personal heater just decided to leave I quickly wrap myself in the blanket as well as I can and decide that I won’t be moving any time soon. Dorn, being quite amused by me, looks down at me and grins. <strong><em>“I can roll you places if you want to.” </em></strong>He grins and shoves his head under me, trying to turn me over.</p><p><em>“Hey don’t be ridiculous.” </em>I try to wiggle one arm free to push him away but before that he already flips me onto my stomach. But unlike him, I can still easily recover once flipped over. So, I wiggle around a little until I manage to roll onto my back again. “Hah.” I exclaim and stick my tongue out at him. Dorn, not to be bested so easily, is right back at flipping me over once more but this time he lies down atop of me. I sigh and half-heartedly try to break free but obviously can’t since there’s a 180-pound (~80kg) dragon lying on me.</p><p>After a minute or so I hear another dragon approaching, one of my siblings by the sound of it. I turn my head to the side to see Coilles paws come into view. <strong><em>“I think that’s enough, what happened to being gentle with your sister?” </em></strong>She tries to push him off me but is only mildly successful. Fortunately, Dorn gets the message and gets up voluntarily.</p><p>I turn onto my back and look up at Coille. <em>“Thank you.” </em>I nod and smile.</p><p><strong><em>“No problem sister, I know how you feel.” </em></strong>She smiles back and lies down next to me.</p><p>I stay put for a while longer, not quite feeling like getting up yet.</p><p><em>“Ah fuck it, have stuff to do and it won’t do itself.” </em>I think to myself and groan as I get up while trying to keep the blanket as close to me as possible. Before long I give up on that however and simply throw it onto the bed and run to grab my jacket. I can feel my parents watch me, Skaftá wants to stop me and wrap me up but decides against it in the end. Once I got my jacket, I go to make a fire, hoping that it’ll keep me warm without my parents help.</p><p>Dorn and Coille help me gather the wood, leaving me to do most of the stacking and in a matter of minutes we’ve built something that is more akin to a small bonfire than a campfire.</p><p>Dorn sits beside the pile and for a second contemplates if he should try lighting it but Scáthán interrupts him right away. <strong><em>“Not yet little one, give it a few more weeks. We don’t want you to hurt yourself.” </em></strong>He gets up and bathes the wood in flames for a couple seconds, then rests his head between me and my brother. <em>“Thanks dad.” </em>I hold my hands close to the fire and lean against him. <strong><em>“No problem Arya. Let’s hope you didn’t catch anything tonight.” </em></strong>I can feel his eyes resting on me. <em>“Ah, I’m sure I’ll be fine. I don’t feel off in the slightest.” </em>I can tell that he’s not quite convinced yet but decides to drop the topic. Coille lies down behind me, resting her head on my lap and places her tail around my hip.</p><p>Seeing how the three of us are sitting around the fire, Aonar joins us soon after, taking his place next to Dorn. Not wanting to be left out, Skaftá gets up as well and lies down opposite of me, placing her tail such that it forms a half circle between her and Scáthán.</p><p>Scáthán, seeing what she’s trying to do, does the same. But since his tail is a fair bit longer his side of the circle ends up wider than hers. <em>“Looks like my little campfire got all of us together huh?” </em></p><p>I let my eyes wander from one to the next. <strong><em>“Indeed. It’s warmth sure is nice.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies and smiles. For a long moment the whole cave feels very peaceful and calm, even with these ferocious beasts all around me. I can’t help but feel at peace, as if this is where I belonged, in their midst.</p><p>The moment doesn’t last too long as Dorn and Aonar get into another play fight, started by Aonar swiping at Dorn’s paws. In just a few seconds it escalates into them hissing and jumping at one another. <em>“I’m glad dad put himself between me and them, wouldn’t want to get involved in that.” </em></p><p>Still I find myself watching them with amazement. <strong><em>“I am too.” </em></strong>Coille says, she seems to know exactly what her brothers are up to without even having to look. <em>“It’s your mental connection with them isn’t it?” </em>I ask her without averting my eyes from my brothers fighting. <strong><em>“Hmm?” </em></strong>I feel Coilles head shift as she looks up at me. <strong><em>“Oh, yes. Most of the time I know almost exactly what they are up to. If I wanted to, I could even try and take control from them and mess with their movements.” </em></strong>She gets herself comfortable again. <strong><em>“Not that I would do that. I’m not that unfair.” </em></strong>I can sense her grinning mischievously. Suddenly Dorn and Aonar slip as if they had the proverbial rug pulled out from under them. For a split second they lie on the floor, confused, then their confusion turns to anger as they realize that Coille had just tripped them both up. They both pick themselves up and with a quick glance agree to team up on her as revenge. <em>“What did you just get me into?” </em>I ask her while ducking behind Scátháns head. Just before the two of them can jump over Scátháns head and onto us, he shoots them a glare. <strong><em>“Not now.” </em></strong>He reprimands them.</p><p>They both wince and sit down, pretending as if nothing had happened. <strong><em>“Sorry sister, I didn’t expect them to team up on us…” </em></strong>I can tell she’s genuinely sorry and I quickly pet her head. <em>“Don’t worry, I’m sure I would have been fine, I just got a little scared in that moment.” </em>I glance over at my brothers again, they’re playing nice now. <em>“Thanks dad.” </em>I say to Scáthán. <em>“And I don’t think this is quite over for you yet sister.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry about me. I may be physically weaker than them, but I’ll be able to hold my own still.” </em></strong>She smiles, full of confidence.</p><p><em>“Alright, if you say so.” </em>I don’t quite believe her. <em>“As long as I can stay out of it.” </em>I think to myself. Even though I know I can’t be hurt too much by them, the thought of getting into the midst of a fight between these beasts scares me. It must be something deep down, something instinctual.</p><p>While things have seemingly settled down, there’s an atmosphere of departure still in the air and just a few minutes later, Skaftá heaves herself up. <strong><em>“Alright, time to head on out now.” </em></strong>She says while looking at my siblings, intentionally leaving me out however.</p><p><strong><em>“And you can stay back here with me if you want, you had some things you want to do.”</em></strong> Scáthán says to me and I can feel his gaze on the back of my head.</p><p>I nod slowly, not quite sure what I want to do. <em>“I would love to come with them, but then I also have to prepare the chicken, build the wood containers, dry the herbs, organize some salt, get my hands on some metal to make tools and do something with my old clothes… I’ve also been neglecting the whole telepathy business.” </em>I scratch my chin.</p><p><strong><em>“It won’t be the last time you’ll be able to come with us. If you want to do things back here, you may as well.” </em></strong>Dorn says to me while following his mother.</p><p><em>“Mmmh, I guess you’re right.” </em>I feel Coille slip out from under my hand and follow suit. After they pass the corner, I hear Skaftá take off and then silence befalls the cave.</p><p>Scáthán stays nearly completely still, waiting for me to do something.</p><p><em>“Where do I even start.” </em>I think about all the things that need doing, feeling a little overwhelmed with my choices. Luckily my stomach answers the question for me as it audibly grumbles.</p><p><em>“Alright, that settles that.” </em>I go to pick up the chicken and return to the fire where I try to rip out it’s feathers. <em>“I’ve never actually done this… Do I just pull? Do I even have the endurance to do this?” </em>I turn the hen a few times, trying to come up with a plan. <em>“Ah fuck it, just try. If it doesn’t work, I can always ask my father.” </em>I just grab a single feather and start pulling on it, surprisingly it comes lose without too much effort. Surprised by how easy this was I hold the loose feather up to my face and stare at it. <em>“Is this supposed to be so easy?” </em>I ask myself before putting the feather aside and grabbing the next one. I yank out single feathers in rapid succession but even after some fifteen minutes I’ve barely cleared even half a square inch (~3cm²). <em>“This is going to take forever.” </em>I try my hand at pulling out two and it works well enough as well. Next, I grab a handful of feathers on the chest and pull on them, at first, they don’t want to give way but with some persistence I can get most of them to disconnect. I look at the bunch of feathers in my hand, surprised I could muster this much strength. <em>“Holy shit.” </em>My eyes wander over to my biceps and I flex it a little. <em>“Where is this strength coming from?” </em>I immediately suspect magic but I don’t feel like there was any magic flowing through me. I pause for a moment, then slowly turn my sight to stare at Scáthán.</p><p><strong><em>“Why are you looking at me like that? I’m not doing anything.” </em></strong>I narrow my eyes and try to feel what he’s thinking and indeed, I can’t find anything that could even raise suspicions. <strong><em>“Why are you so surprised anyway? You just got stronger. There, that’s your answer. Nothing more nothing less.” </em></strong>He smiles slightly.</p><p>I press my lips together as I don’t quite believe it yet, but he does have a point. <em>“Okay, I guess that is true.” </em>I rip out the few feathers that I left behind and continue to rip out bunches of feathers, trying to find the optimal balance between the number of feathers and leaving as few as possible behind. While it turns out that there is no optimum for the entire bird, I can still make quick work of most of the feathers and only half an hour later I got most of them pruned, leaving only a few broke off roots behind.</p><p><em>“That was, surprisingly fast.” </em>I look at the palms of my hands to see some welts where I gripped the shafts of the feathers but otherwise, they look fine. <em>“And my arms don’t feel like they’re falling off yet.” </em> I inspect the naked chicken again, now the only things left to do are getting rid of the roots and gutting it, then I can get to cooking. I pluck at one of the bits sticking out of the skin but can’t quite get a grip good enough to pull it out. That doesn’t stop me from trying yet and I keep trying with different ones but none of them want to budge. <strong><em>“Is this where I come in to help you?” </em></strong>I hear Scáthán ask me. I nod slowly and turn towards him. <em>“I would have needed your help gutting this bird anyway, so why don’t you also help me get rid of these?” </em>I hold the chicken towards him.</p><p>He lazily lifts his head and takes a closer look. <strong><em>“Should be easy enough. Just hold still for a moment.” </em></strong>His pupils turn into thin slits and his eyes take on a barely perceivable glow.</p><p>Seconds later, the stuck quills begin to simply fall out, one after another. The moment the last one pops out, his eyes stop glowing and his pupils return to normal. <strong><em>“That settles that, now if you would please put it down.” </em></strong></p><p>I do as he instructs me and shuffle back half a step, then watch him closely. He sits on his haunches, his head craning downwards and both paws placed next to the hen. Very carefully he uses one claw to pin it to the ground, then very slowly cuts it open from front to back with another claw. Once he deems to cut big enough, he pulls it wide open with both claws, then starts cutting out the organs.</p><p>It quickly gets rather messy with all the blood that is now also flowing out of the fowl but that doesn’t slow him down at all. Before long he pulls out the last bit of innards, leaving them in a disgusting pile of grossness. <strong><em>“Almost done now, just one thing you’re forgetting about. We still need to get the blood out. There isn’t too much left but still.” </em></strong></p><p>I quickly nod and he simply cuts the chickens head off with one claw, then turns his eyes towards me. <strong><em>“It would be easiest if you just held it upside down for a while now, let gravity do its thing.” </em></strong></p><p>After a moment of hesitation, I grab the chicken by its feet and hold it as far away as I can as the blood flows out of its cut throat. <em>“How long will this take?” </em>I ask him.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I honestly have no clue. I guess a while since the thing has been dead for some time and the blood has started coagulating. Might not even be able to get everything out. If it’s necessary, I’ll use some more magic.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“That sounds like a good plan. Though I have to ask, why not use magic right now? Sounds easier to me.” </em>I shake the hen a little, hoping to get the blood flowing quicker but all I do is send droplets flying all over, some hitting Scáthán. Fortunately, he doesn’t mind in the slightest.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We like to conserve our magic energy as much as we can, we have a natural aversion to using it when it’s not necessary. After all there could always come a moment where we need every last bit of it.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“What could you possibly need large amounts of magic energy for?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“There isn’t much I agree but getting through natural disasters is one of them. Sure, we can sense them coming and if we don’t smaller animals around us do but even then, we can’t always get out of the way in time. Remember how </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>Skaftá got struck by lightning that one time? That only happened because she ran out of energy fighting the storm.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I think she even told me. But would these miniscule amounts of energy really make a difference? I like to think that your breathing already uses more energy than those spells.” </em>I stare at the cut throat of the chicken. The flow of blood had turned into a slow drip by now. <strong><em>“You’re right on that, the spells we cast for you rarely use enough energy to impact us at all, besides they are often necessary for your safety. But I would like to still avoid using magic too often, so I don’t get into the habit of using magic for everything. Because if I do it’ll get to a point where the small amounts add up and leave me with a chunk of energy missing.” </em></strong>I can sense him pondering if he should use magic again.</p><p>I nod slowly, keeping my eyes on the chicken. <em>“I get that, wouldn’t want you to exert yourself more than you have to for my sake anyway. Makes me feel like I have to pay you back somehow even if you’ve told me a million times that I don’t have to.” </em></p><p>The drops of blood are now falling one by one with seconds of silence between them.</p><p><strong><em>“You know, you just gave me an idea. How about I use your energy reserves to cast spells? It would require me to take control of you for a moment and it certainly won’t be enough to cover the bigger spells but for some small stuff like this it should be alright.” </em></strong>I can feel him looking at me and I slightly tilt my head to meet his gaze. <em>“Ehm, I don’t know? Do I even have reserves for anything? Doesn’t any spell I attempt to cast dip straight into bodily reserves?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No and yes. With time that’s going to change but right now you’re correct. Though if we do it that way you can get used to the feeling of magic energy flowing through you and don’t need to feel bad about us using energy for you. Then all we would need to do is cast a spell through you. The only downside would be that it requires us to take just about full control of your body.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>For a moment silence settles in as we both stare at one another, unmoving. <em>“I mean that does sound like a plan…” </em>I can feel some unease rise within me. I don’t quite like the thought of them having full control of me. <em>“But does it really matter? It’s not like they’ve abused their ability to do so in the past. Hell, if they wanted to, I couldn’t even fight back. And whenever they took over in the past it was to keep me safe and they left as soon as they could.” </em>I purse my lips and drop my head a little.</p><p><em>“Alright, let’s try it. I’ve had magic energy flowing through me once and it hasn’t killed me. You two have taken control of me more than once and every time I was fine afterwards. I’d just like for you to let me know right before you take over okay?” </em>I raise my head again to lock eyes with Scáthán again.</p><p>He lifts his head off the ground just enough to nod, a smile growing on his face. <strong><em>“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to make you feel as safe as can be. I know your past trauma doesn’t make it easy for you to give up control.” </em></strong>He slowly turns his head towards me. <strong><em>“How about we do a first trial run now then?” </em></strong>I can sense him closely watching my mind for my reaction.</p><p>A knot forms in my stomach and take a deep breath. <em>“Alright just a moment.” </em>I close my eyes and focus on breathing steadily and slowly.</p><p><em>“Everything will be fine Arya. You’re not dealing with human scum here. Remember that they’ve been doing their best to keep you safe.” </em>I open my eyes again, straighten my back and breathe out. <em>“As ready as I’ll ever be.” </em>I stare into Scátháns eyes and brace myself for what’s to come.</p><p><strong><em>“Okay…” </em></strong>He pauses very briefly. <strong><em>“Here it goes.” </em></strong>Immediately I feel his presence seep into mine and in a matter of seconds my consciousness is filled by him. Panic rises quickly and I feel my heart speed up and then suddenly all that goes away again. I can still think like normal but that’s it. I can’t feel my arms or legs anymore, if I try to move them nothing happens. My head is slowly turned towards the chicken, then I feel something rise from deep within me, deeper than any memory I ever buried. It doesn’t feel like it’s a memory either. The moment it reaches my consciousness I feel an electrifying sensation, it feels somehow altered still but that must be due to Scáthán having taken control away from me. The hairs on my arms stand on end and I can feel the tingling moving down my neck into my shoulder and from there into my arm. It flows up my arms and from my fingers into the chicken. Then a moment later blood quickly starts flowing again, even quicker than it did right after cutting the throat. Not even a minute later the flow abruptly stops again, a few more droplets fall and then I can suddenly feel my body again and Scátháns presence almost fully disappears from my mind again. <em>“Well that was an experience…” </em>I think to myself as I stare at the sizeable puddle of blood on the floor.</p><p>The next thing I notice is how I feel kind of winded, like I did when I climbed into a three a few days ago. My arms are starting to get sore from holding this chicken for too long as well.</p><p><em>“Is that it?” </em>I ask while looking up at Scáthán who had been watching me very closely.</p><p><strong><em>“That is all.” </em></strong>He nods and smiles widely. <strong><em>“Wasn’t that bad was it?” </em></strong></p><p>I place the chicken by my side, making sure to keep it far away from its blood. <em>“I guess so, but I have to ask, did you mess with my emotions? I felt like panicking and then it suddenly went away.” </em></p><p>The time it takes him to answer already tells me that he did. <strong><em>“I did. But you would have been able to calm yourself just as well.” </em></strong>I can sense his realization that it might not have been the best idea.</p><p><em>“It’s alright…” </em>I sigh and drop my chin onto my chest. I can’t help but feel betrayed and used. <em>“I know you didn’t mean harm.” </em></p><p>Silence befalls the two of us while I try to work through my disappointment.</p><p><strong><em>“I know there’s this might not be much to regain your trust. But if you want, I can show you exactly what I was thinking in those moment. To show you that I indeed had no ill intent. It’ll also be a nice exercise for you since you haven’t consciously looked right into our minds much yet.” </em></strong>I simply nod and close my eyes, try my best to sense his mind.</p><p>It takes me a moment to clear my mind enough to properly try and get a grip on our connection.</p><p>I put my full focus on it and can very clearly hear his thoughts and as I keep mentally staring deeper and deeper into it, I can make out blurry images floating about.</p><p>Suddenly I feel like I’m falling and the images around me become clearer. The moment I can see his thoughts clearly the feeling of falling stops. <em>“Is this right?” </em>I ask myself, worried that I messed up and wound up…I don’t even know where…</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry, you’re where you want to be.” </em></strong>I hear Scátháns voice all around me, just like the times previously where he showed me memories of his.</p><p>The images flying around me like bees suddenly become fewer and fewer, only one becoming more and more dominant until it completely surrounds me.</p><p><em>“As ready as I’ll ever be.” </em>I hear myself say, looking at me sitting there from Scátháns perspective. Everything around the edges of his vision looks a little blurry, as if he needed glasses. But everything in the centre looks extremely sharp. He focuses on the copper coloured formless blob floating where my head is, and I can see tendrils connecting it to him. The tendrils start copper brown on my end and slowly turn black as they approach him. Suddenly they start growing much thicker and the blackness takes over my half as well. Once it reaches my mind it begins seeping in, turning my minds colour into a murky mix and finally fully black.</p><p>Time seems to slow down as they colours mix, at first everything seems fine but as he begins to take more and more control from me, my mind subsequently turning more and more black, he notices my panic. He had already taken most motor control from me, so he wasn’t worried about me hurting myself if I panicked. But if I get overwhelmed, he’ll have to abort, and this would be for naught. In the end, he doesn’t deem the rising panic great enough to overwhelm me. So, he makes the split-second decision to interfere even though his conscience is already telling him that this may very well backfire. He washes my fear and panic away as swiftly as the ocean washes away footsteps in the sand and quickly moves on to channelling the spell. A minute later he notices the spell quickly ramping up its energy use as it tries to force the last bit of blood from the chicken. He aborts the spell and quickly retreats from my mind.</p><p>The memory begins to fade and suddenly I find myself floating in his mind again, the usual buzzing of thoughts and memories having returned. <em>“You really just thought you were helping me.” </em></p><p>I can sense him nod but otherwise remain silent. <em>“I forgive you dad. Having seen that you really had no ill intent really helps me believe it. Not that I didn’t before.” </em></p><p>I try to retreat to my own body but realize I have no idea how to. <em>“Err, just one question. Where’s the exit?”</em></p><p>Suddenly I feel Scátháns mind push on me, I feel like falling again and moments later find myself surrounded by familiar thoughts again.</p><p>When I open my eyes again, I find myself sitting right where I was, Scáthán hadn’t moved much either though I do notice how close his snout had gotten just by him turning his head.</p><p><strong><em>“There you go, I hope you’re feeling better now.” </em></strong>He smiles and tilts his head a little.</p><p><em>“I am. Thank you for showing me that. You know what they say. Watching is believing as they say I think.” </em>I carefully place my hand between his nostrils and rub his scales. <em>“Though it’ll probably be a while before I feel comfortable with this again. That did help me a bunch still.” </em></p><p>He nods and his smiles grows wider. <strong><em>“Very good. It’s my fault so I’ll be waiting until you feel ready again.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Thank you </em><em>Scáthán, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” </em>I look around at the mess we’ve made, and the half burnt down fire.</p><p><strong><em>“How about we continue making you food now? Clean up a little and start cooking.” </em></strong>He pulls his head back a little and licks his chops.</p><p><em>“Good thinking. I’ll grab the ahem, pan and refuel the fire. I can already imagine what you mean by clean up.” </em>Scáthán grins widely. <strong><em>“You know me too well.” </em></strong>He quickly licks the blood off the ground and picks up most of the organs with his mouth, swallowing the mix and licking the rest of the organs off the floor.</p><p>I watch him, disbelief in my eyes but I don’t bother saying anything.</p><p><em>“Anyway, where were we?” </em>I get up to grab more wood and my makeshift pan. At first, I try to stack the wood on top the rock and carry it all at once but quickly have to realize that it’s just too unwieldy and heavy for me. Instead I bring the wood to the fire first, stack some wood on the fire and then quickly grab the rock and place it on top of the smouldering wood. <em>“Now to get the meat off the bones…”</em> I think to myself while holding the chicken up to me. By the looks of it there isn’t too much meat on it which was to be expected off a wild chicken.</p><p><strong><em>“If you lend me a hand, I can help you out. All I need you to do is hold it for me so I can use my claws.” </em></strong>He sends me mental images of me holding the chicken far away from me as he cuts it to pieces with his claws. <em>“That does looks like a good plan since my knife is well, fucked…” </em>I grab the hen and hold it with my arms outstretched as far as I can.</p><p>He repositions himself, his head a few feet away but his paws right next to the chicken. <em>“Man am I glad that I got a protective spell on me…” </em>He carefully raises one paw, extends one claw, like a gigantic butcher’s knife, and slowly carves the meat off the bones. I can watch his eyes widen to the point where they fill his eyes almost entirely, his mind laser focused on the chicken. With more precision than I could ever muster.</p><p>As he reaches the part of the chickens’ ribs that really starts curving, he stops. <strong><em>“Can you pull the loose meat away for me? Otherwise we’ll probably end up with shredded chicken instead.” </em></strong></p><p>I try to readjust my grip so that I can hold the thing with one hand and have the other free.</p><p>Firmly grabbing the loose chunk, I gently pull it away, revealing his claw that had already sunk some third of an inch(~0,8cm) into the flesh instead of cutting it off the bones. With our combined efforts we make quick work of the rest and soon I hold a whole chicken breast in my hands.</p><p>I throw it onto the rock to have it start cooking already, then we get to the other half right away. Since we already know what we’re doing we get through it in half the time, leaving a rather barren skeleton behind.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Sadly, there’s not much else to be had, the wings have nothing on them, the head doesn’t either. You could maybe go for the legs to make some drumsticks, but I doubt they’re worth the effort.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I turn the leftovers in my hands, his assessment does look very accurate. <em>“Let me guess, you’ll erm, dispose, of the leftovers?” </em>I hold the bones towards him with one hand. <strong><em>“Can you read my mind? Oh right, you can.” </em></strong>He says jokingly and winks. <em>“Guess I’ll throw you a bone.” </em>I quip back.</p><p><strong><em>“That joke doesn’t really work when you’re throwing me a whole skeleton.” </em></strong>He licks his chops in anticipation. <em>“Guess I’ll have to throw you bones then. No, doesn’t have the same ring to it…” </em>I throw the remains of the chicken high into the air and immediately move back as far as I can. Scáthán catches it with ease, his head snapping forward faster than my eyes can follow it. I hear the sound of his jaws slamming shut, accompanied by a crunch as he crushes his snack, then a gulp as he swallows. <strong><em>“Thanks for sharing Arya.” </em></strong>He says as he smacks his lips. <em>“No problem, I guess? It’s not like I could have done anything with that.” </em>I quickly flip the pieces of meat over as the rock had gotten quite hot. <em>“Also, do I need to worry? Judging by how eagerly you devoured that you must be quite hungry.” </em>I look up at him, feeling rather small and defenceless. <strong><em>“No need to worry, it’d be a long time before I’d even think about turning you into a meal.” </em></strong>He smiles and blinks slowly. <em>“I know I’ve brought this up before but especially when I’m alone with one of you I always feel a bit…unsafe?” </em>I force a smile and try to let go of my worries. <strong><em>“Well rest assured that even if you somehow ended up in our gut, you’d be safe.” </em></strong>He grins and lies, shuffling his paws around to get comfy.</p><p>My heart stops for a moment and my thoughts freeze. <em>“Excuse me WHAT? I’ll need you to elaborate on that.” </em>I stare at him, completely flabbergasted. <strong><em>“Oh, I was just trying to lighten the mood. I was alluding to our ability to completely shut down our GI tract.” </em></strong>He seems to realize that what he said may not have been the best idea. <em>“Uhuh.” </em>I say while nodding with my mouth half agape. <em>“Even then, I’d much prefer to stay outside, thanks.” </em>I add but even still, I feel something stir within me, but I quickly distract myself by tending to my dinner. “Hot, hot, hot.” I mutter as I quickly flip the meat over, then just as quickly pull my hands back and vigorously shake them, trying to cool them off. <strong><em>“Should I help you with that?” </em></strong>Scáthán says while closely watching me nearly burn myself. <em>“If you could that would be great, but don’t burn yourself either. Or were you thinking of a spell?” </em>I suck on my finger’s tips for a moment, trying to dull the pain. <strong><em>“No magic needed, my scales and claws are rather hear resistant.” </em></strong>He demonstrably holds one claw into the flames for a few seconds. <em>“Figures, the gigantic fire breathing lizard is resistant to heat, who would have thought.” </em>I shake my head and roll my eyes at my own ignorance. <strong><em>“Being resistant to heat and nearly fireproof are two very different things little one. The latter being virtually non-existent on this planet.” </em></strong>He licks the claw he just held into the fire, the sizzling of boiling saliva is heard as it makes contact. <em>“I guess so, but it’s pretty safe to assume that on whatever planet your kind originated, being fire proof to some degree must have been a very helpful.” </em>I flinch at the sound and imagine the blister I would have gotten from that while he seems perfectly fine. <strong><em>“Or maybe not, we both know nothing about my kinds home planet. For all I know fire could have been the most useless thing on it and we just developed our fiery breath for other purposes.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“Fair point, there’s little use in speculating about what was millions, if not billions, of years ago.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Doesn’t make it less fun though.”   </em></strong>Scáthán smiles and watches my breakfast sizzle away.</p><p><em>“You got a point yet again.” </em>I join him in watching my food and we both fall silent for a while.</p><p>Eventually he deems the chicken done and effortlessly lifts the rock out of the fire with three of his claws, placing it a foot (~30cm) away from me. <strong><em>“Caution, hot surface.” </em></strong>He says dryly as he pulls his claws out from under the rock. I grin and shake my head. <em>“Who would have expected that.” </em>It’s another ten minutes before the whole thing has cooled down enough for me to grab any of the chicken and another five before it reaches a temperature where I can eat it without burning my mouth. But once it does, I can barely hold myself back from devouring it in one go.</p><p>I can sense Scátháns amusement, but I couldn’t care less, I’ll be sure to remind him next time he’s swallowing a cow whole. As I go to grab the other piece, I nearly burn myself as I forgot that the rock had kept it warm.</p><p>I curse but power through the pain, fortunately my fingers quickly grow numb to the heat and a few minutes later I get to enjoy the rest of my breakfast. Once I’m done eating, I soon notice a certain drowsiness settle in, within minutes I can barely keep my eyes open. <strong><em>“Is someone falling into a food coma?” </em></strong>Scáthán asks me as he watches me struggling to keep my eyes open. I sigh and nod slowly. <em>“I…guess so…” </em>My thoughts keep trailing off.</p><p>I look for a place to lie down and sleep, wondering if dragging myself to bed is even worth the effort. <strong><em>“Don’t worry Arya, just close your eyes, I’ll take care of you.” </em></strong>He wraps his tail around me, and I feel him pulling me closer. <em>“If you try anything, I’ll…I don’t know what I’ll do but I’ll do something.” </em>He places me between his front paws, close enough to the fire to keep me warm but far enough to be safe. <strong><em>“I won’t, I promise.” </em></strong>He grins and rests his head slightly off to my right such that he can be close to the fire too and keep an eye on me. <strong><em>“Now go and sleep your meal off, I’ll be watching over you.” </em></strong>He wraps more of his tail around me, leaving a gap between each turn and finally moving the tip end of it under my head to act as a pillow. <em>“Alright…” </em>I rub my head against his tail and stop trying to keep my eyes open. Moments later I’ve drifted off into a nearly comatose sleep. In the hour that I spend sleeping like a dead person I feel old nightmares trying to resurface, ones that until then my brother had kept out of my dreams. Fortunately, Scátháns presence is enough to give me the strength to keep them at bay for now.</p><p>I end up waking on my own and almost immediately feel much more energetic than before. I don’t quite feel like I could move mountains but it’s certainly much better than before.</p><p><strong><em>“Feeling refreshed, are we?” </em></strong>Scáthán asks me as my eyes fall onto him. I am not quite awake enough to reply yet and quickly nod instead.</p><p>He unwraps me from the confines of his tail and leaves me sitting between his paws on the floor, watching me, waiting for me to decide what to do next.</p><p>I rub my eyes and stretch thoroughly, then look over at my backpack, then on to the pile of wood.</p><p><em>“It would make more sense to make a handful of containers first, then dry all the herbs.” </em>I think to myself and get up to grab the piece from yesterday and pick a branch with similar thickness from the pile of firewood. I return back to between Scátháns front paws, branch in tow and fidget around with the piece of wood, thinking about what I should do with it.</p><p>As I fiddle with the bark chunks of it flake off, exposing the naked wood below. <em>“I guess I start by getting the bark off…” </em>I let my fingers glide across the top and bottom of it. <em>“Then somehow smooth it out, I guess? And then?” </em>I intently stare at it for a second. <em>“Fuck it, I’ll just start and see how it goes. If I fuck it up, I’ll just turn it into firewood.” </em></p><p>I start plucking away at the spot where the bark came loose, throwing the pieces I break off into the fire. Again, I find myself completely focused on the piece of wood, losing track of everything around me as I pick away at the bark.</p><p>Sometime later I’ve managed to pick most of it off and am left with just the naked wood, I take a moment to appreciate the pattern of lines that hid beneath.</p><p>I try to rub it over the rocky ground in hopes to have it act like sandpaper but as expected it’s much too rough and ends up only makes the fraying worse. <em>“Do I actually need to make it smooth? It wouldn’t affect how functional it is in the end.” </em>I pluck at the small rocks stuck in the grain of the wood. <em>“Fuck it. Don’t care.” </em>I decide and furrow my eyebrows as I ponder how to proceed from here. <em>“Best thing I could do is cut a piece off the top, hollow the rest out and for the top into something of a plug that’s barely wider than the hole. Then I could use friction to hold it in place.” </em>I mentally draw lines on the wood and try to imagine how that would look like. <em>“Let’s hope the wood doesn’t just split since the pressure would be along the grain. If I ever smash the plug in too hard it’d just make the whole thing split.” </em>I scratch my chin, wondering if I could somehow solve that problem.</p><p><em>“Could try and cut the plug with the grain, then form the container against the grain, that would give it some more strength, but then the top is more likely to give way to the pressure of the plug… I really wish I could have metal or plastic, those don’t have any of these problems.” </em>I frown and sigh, then return my attention to the piece of wood. <em>“I guess if I ever get my hands on some thread or fabric, I could tie some around it to give it some extra strength.” </em></p><p><em>“But what am I concerning myself with those issues right now? I don’t even have tools to do anything with this brick of wood right now.” </em>I look up at Scáthán who had been patiently watching over me. <em>“I may have to ask you for some magic again…” </em>He smiles and tilts his head a little. <strong><em>“I was waiting for you to ask. It’s fine, the leftovers you gave me more than make up for whatever energy I’ll have to expend to help you.” </em></strong>He brings his head closer and closely looks at the piece of wood. <strong><em>“Alright, so you want to take a piece off the top, hollow out the lower part and shape the top into a plug.” </em></strong>I can sense him retracing my memories, he must have been not just physically watching me.</p><p><em>“Indeed.” </em>I nod along as he makes sure he got what I was thinking right. <strong><em>“Good news then, I don’t that that’ll require too much magic. Just hold still for a moment.” </em></strong>His stare grows even more intense and his pupils widen a little.</p><p>Suddenly I notice that I can move my hands freely, they aren’t being held together by the wood anymore, it must have gotten severed somewhere.</p><p>Carefully I move my hands apart and indeed, a one inch (~2,5cm) thick piece had come loose on one end. <strong><em>“And that’s almost all the magic we’ll need.” </em></strong>I stare at the two pieces, dumbfounded by how easily he just split them. So perfectly as well, the surfaces look perfectly smooth. <em>“I can’t wait until I can do this kind of stuff too.” </em>I think to myself and put the smaller piece aside. <em>“Now how to hollow this out? By the sound of it you already have a plan?” </em>I peel my eyes off the wood and look up at him again. <strong><em>“Indeed.” </em></strong>I feel his body shift behind me, and he places one of his paws right by my side. <strong><em>“My claws should work as a tool to hollow it out.” </em></strong></p><p>I slowly turn my head as I try to imagine how his gigantic claws, each one thicker than my arm.</p><p><em>“How?” </em>I stare at them in disbelief, afraid to even touch them. <strong><em>“The tip of them should be pointy enough to do the trick.” </em></strong>He lifts his claws a little, then drops them again to make them clack on the ground. I’m not quite convinced by his plan but decide to humour him and try to grab one of his claws. It’s heavier than expect but he’s nice enough to lift it for me. I peer over at him for a moment. <em>“Don’t drop it.” </em>I think as I move one leg under it and position myself such that the tip of it hovers between my knees. I take a close look at it and notice that the tip is pointier than I expected and the bottom not quite a smooth.</p><p><em>“I see, a makeshift lathe. Hand powered and operated.” </em>I carefully place the centre of the wood against his claw and gently press against it. Surprisingly enough, his claw sinks in rather easily at first. I stop for a moment and let go and to my surprise it sticks. After a short chuckle at how silly it looks, I firmly grab it again and try to turn it.</p><p>Much to my amazement, that too goes relatively easily. I slowly keep turning and pushing to make the hole in the wood bigger and bigger. As it gets deeper, I do notice that I need to put more effort into turning but it’s nothing I can’t deal with. Some fifteen minutes later I deem the cavity big enough to hold whatever I need of it and I take a closer look at it. There’s some loose or frayed stuff in there that I need to remove but otherwise it looks decent.</p><p>
  <em>“The only thing missing now, is a lid.” </em>
</p><p>I fiddle around with the other piece of wood, trying to come up with a way we could make it into a plug. <strong><em>“I don’t think we can do that by hand. The precision needed for that is just too much.” </em></strong></p><p>Scáthán intently stares at the piece of wood too, his mind racing through different approaches to the problem. I nod and purse my lips, even if I had tools this part would be rather difficult by the looks of it. <strong><em>“However, since we have magic at our disposal it’ll be child’s play.” </em></strong>He lifts one claw to stop me from fidgeting. <strong><em>“Again, just hold still for a moment.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Are you sure you want to-“ </em>Before I can finish my sentence his eyes already begin to shine and a second later a piece falls out of the middle while I’m still holding it. <em>“Oh...” </em>I pick up the perfectly flat plug that he cut out with magic. <em>“Well that solves that issue I guess.” </em>I put the leftover ring aside and pick up the plug he just made. It’s slightly conical and I can’t find a single imperfection in its sides. <em>“Wow, but does it fit?” </em>I carefully place it on top of the tin and press down on it. It only moves a tiny fraction of an inch (few mm) and then stops.</p><p>I tug on it and shake the whole thing violently and it stays put. <em>“Nice.” </em>I pull harder on it and with some effort it comes loose again. I nod in amazement at how well it fit. <em>“Did you eyeball this?” </em>I point at the lid while looking at Scáthán.</p><p>He grins widely and nods. <strong><em>“Indeed. Now let’s keep going, we still have a few more to make.” </em></strong>He nods towards the other branch I brought with me. <em>“You’re right. So much to do today.” </em>I pull it into my lap and look at his claw. <em>“Wonder how long that’s going to take.” </em>I think to myself as I try to imagine how I would cut the wood into pieces. <strong><em>“There’s an easy way for that too.” </em></strong>He grabs the end of the stick with his lips and pulls it closer to him. Scáthán pins it down with one paw and then effortlessly bites a similarly sized piece off the end of it. He lets it roll off his tongue such that it bumps against my feet and comes to a stop. With a face of mild disgust, I pick it up with just two fingers, trying my best to not touch it too much.</p><p>Surprisingly it’s not completely soaked in slobber, it merely feels slightly wet. Outside of that it looks pretty similar in size and diameter to the first one, the ends of it are similarly roughed up as well. <em>“I guess this’ll do. But is that good for your teeth? I don’t want to be pulling bark and wood from between your teeth. What if you catch a splinter in your gum? I imagine that’d be super painful.” </em>I think back to the time I had to remove the remains of a herd of sheep from his teeth. <strong><em>“Don’t worry about that. If I do it with my molar teeth it’ll be fine, no splinter in my gum or wood left behind. Besides, wood doesn’t wrap around my teeth the way wool does.” </em></strong></p><p>He grins happily and picks the branch up again, swiftly chomping down on it again and with a crunch severing another piece of wood. This time he doesn’t spit it out immediately and instead keeps going until he must have half a dozen in his mouth. Once he considers the branch sufficiently decimated, he lets the pieces he cut off roll out of his mouth. As had them in his mouth for a considerably longer time they all look too be more slobbered on than the first one, but the fire will probably dry them quickly.</p><p><em>“Damn, guess I better get to picking the bark off. Not that I’m in any hurry since I’d prefer those to dry before I pick them up.” </em>I haphazardly pluck away at the piece in my hands.</p><p>Pulling the bark of it soon turns into an almost meditative task for me, I try hard to pull as big pieces as possible off and become fully immersed in my plucking and pulling.</p><p>Time flies as I make my way through the pieces Scáthán had bit off, around the halfway point I begin using his claws to make incisions into the bark whenever a piece ripped off too cleanly to make it easier to get a grip again.</p><p>By the end of it I sit in a pile shredded bark, stacks of blank wooden blocks next to me.</p><p>Next, I pick them up one by one and hold them for Scáthán to cast his magic on them and cut an inch thick (~2,5cm) piece off the top.</p><p>After cleaning myself off for a bit I take the top one off on of the stacks and begin hollowing it out using my father’s claws. The pile of wood shavings grows quickly and an hour and change later I’ve gotten through all of them once more.</p><p>Lastly, I hold the lids up for him to magically cut the plugs out of them, they all end up slightly different in size because I didn’t pay too much attention to exactly how much I hollowed them out.</p><p>Once I found the right bottom for each of the plugs, I put them into a neat line and appreciate our work. <em>“This wouldn’t have been possible without you.” </em>I say to Scáthán, gently rubbing his paw. <em>“Thank you very much for the helping…paw.” </em>I smile and lean back against his leg.</p><p><strong><em>“No problem little one.” </em></strong>He nudges my head with the tip of his snout. <strong><em>“It was fun figuring out how to make them with as little magic as possible.” </em></strong>I can sense that he’s happy with what we made too.</p><p><em>“Now to fill them with something.” </em>I get up, pat the stuck pieces of wood and bark out of my shirt and go to grab my backpack. <em>“There’s so much shit to sort through.” </em>I think to myself as I take a first peek inside before sitting down. <em>“And I guess drying that shit is going to take magic as well. Don’t trust myself with using the fire to dry it.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Using magic is indeed the easiest and best way to dry them. It won’t take much energy either.” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me as I sit down next to his paw.</p><p>I place the backpack between my legs and open the zippers as far as they go. I grab a handful of plants from the backpack and begin sorting through them, making separate piles for each type of herb.</p><p>Fortunately, the contents of my backpack hadn’t gotten too mixed so often enough I end up grabbing mostly the same things, making the sorting process bearable at least.</p><p>Still it’s more a long time before I empty my backpack and only then does the really menial task start, getting the leaves off the stems and putting them into the container.</p><p>Right as I’m moving the pile of basil closer to me, I remember that I better count the herbs and containers to make sure I got enough.</p><p><em>“…Hold up.” </em>I recount both, not quite willing to believe that I’ve got exactly the same of both. <em>“Yep, same number for both…” </em>I look at Scáthán, who’s already grinning like that cat that ate the canary. <em>“Let me guess you know because you looked through my memories?” </em>He simply nods.</p><p><em>“And then kept count of how many different herbs I collected since you already knew I’d be wanting to make the containers for them today.” </em>Again, he replies by nodding.</p><p><em>“Sometimes I’m not sure if I should be scared of amazed at your ability to predict me.” </em>I shake my head and recount one last time. <em>“Nope, still the same.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I’m all for you being amazed, you’ve had enough scary things in your life.” </em></strong>He grumbles happily. I shake my head and sigh. <em>“Honestly, I’ll settle on both. Scared and amazed. Like most people would be when encountering your kind.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“The scared side would outweigh in that case though.” </em></strong>He adds. <strong><em>“And right now, it’s the opposite.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Fair enough.” </em>I decide to drop the topic and get to plucking.</p><p>Turns out, there’s a lot of leaves on just one stem, and picking the leaves off of a few thousand of them is not too interesting. Just getting through the first pile takes me way over and hour and the outlook of having more than a handful more to go does not help to motivate me. Even grabbing the stem at the bottom and pulling it through my closed fist to rip off most leaves in one go doesn’t help too much.</p><p>Around the early afternoon hours, I decide to take a break and simply relax. For the first time since I started working, I take a proper look round the cave. The fire is mostly burnt down but luckily the air had warmed up enough for me to not be freezing.</p><p><em>“Time for a break.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>I take a deep breath and sigh, then close my eyes. The sudden lack of stimulus and focus leaves me feeling like I’m floating for just a second as my brain readjusts itself.</p><p>For a while I simply sit there, letting my thoughts idly roam around, focussing on nothing in particular. After a while I notice a yellow blob floating before me. <em>“Must have zoned out unintentionally.” </em>I think to myself and I ponder whether I should try to reach out to him or not.</p><p>My mind makes that decision for me a few moments later as a proverbial feeler had already grown close to Scátháns mind and I only notice right as it makes contact. I brace myself for the inevitable impact and split seconds later a flood of sensory information comes flooding into my head.</p><p>I can hear every sound Scáthán hears, every smell he smells and every touch he feels. Be it the wind or the ground beneath. I try to stem the tide, my mind racing to sort through it all, pushing what doesn’t matter aside, trying not to get overwhelmed. But it truly fells like I’m standing before a wide-open floodgate, trying not to be washed away by the flood of water pouring over me.</p><p>As I’m feeling like I’ll lose the fight, the flow suddenly slows down. Not much, just enough to be tolerable.</p><p>The sudden glimmer of hope gives me the strength to push myself to the limit once more.</p><p>Much to my surprise I actually manage to not be overloaded by all the information flowing into my head, it doesn’t feel like a fruitless struggle to stay afloat anymore. Albeit I can’t do much more than that. My brain is too busy sorting through the information coming from Scátháns mind to concern itself with my own thoughts. It kind of reminds me of exams back in school. I’d enter a trance like state and my mind would work on its own, devoid of conscious thoughts.</p><p>Though I do well for a while, eventually a rather harsh headache sets in and my focus begins to slip and before I know it, I’m struggling to not lose myself again.</p><p>Fortunately, Scáthán takes pity on me and cuts the connection between us. All the sudden the flood stops, and I’m left floating in my own, empty, mind.</p><p>It takes me a moment to recover and process what just happened. <em>“Did I do it? Did I just form a full connection between mine and Scátháns mind and not immediately get overwhelmed?” </em></p><p>I shake my head and rub my eyes, my head throbs with every heart beat but I don’t care too much. I’m much too excited to hear what he has to say. I slowly open my eyes and squint as I get used to the brightness. <em>“Had it really been that long?”</em></p><p><strong><em>“It has been about twenty minutes. You did well Arya.” </em></strong>Scáthán sounds quite happy. <strong><em>“I did have to limit the flow quite a bit, by about a third I guess, but the fact that you withstood even that is admirable.” </em></strong>He smiles warmly. <strong><em>“From here it’ll not be long before you can regulate the connection to us yourself and with some more training you can also decide what we can and can’t see.” </em></strong></p><p>I grin and laugh a little. <em>“I’m sure I still will be powerless if you really want to get into my head though. But hey it’s a first step.” </em>I rub my temples, trying to ease the headache.</p><p><strong><em>“How about we take it easy for the rest of the day.” </em></strong>Scáthán sound a little worried that he overdid it. <em>“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Might just have to sleep this headache off.” </em>I stretch and supress a yawn. I don’t quite feel tired yet, but my mind is so burnt out I’d rather lie still and close my eyes for a while.</p><p><strong><em>“Go ahead and nap, I’ll watch over you and keep you safe.” </em></strong>He rests his head next to me and moves his paw such that I can lie between his claws and use the bit of skin between the bases of them as a pillow. I eye him suspiciously. <em>“And you’re sure this is safe?” </em>I ask while nodding my head at his paw. <em>“Even with the spell it feels like sticking my arm down a crocodiles throat.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I like that analogy but no, I won’t be sleeping so there’s no risk of unintentional movement.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Alright then, I’ll trust you on this one.” </em>I give him a side eye as I go to lie down.</p><p>Much to my surprise it’s actually quite comfortable, the skin between his…fingers? Whatever you’d call them, while covered in scales is surprisingly flexible and does rather well as a headrest.</p><p>I slowly close my eyes and before I know it, I have drifted off to sleep, I must have been more tired than I realized.</p><p>It’s more than an hour before I wake up again and even then, my head still feels unnaturally heavy. <em>“Damn it.” </em>I grumble as I sit up and rub my eyes. <em>“Just ripping leaves off stems for the rest of the day sounds really enticing all the sudden. Not that there’s much time left in the day.” </em>I look towards the caves entrance, it had indeed gotten darker but at least the light wasn’t turning orange yet.</p><p><em>“I hope I have enough time left today to finish all this.” </em>I let my eyes wander over the assorted pile of herbs and spices. <em>“What was I thinking when I was gathering these?” </em></p><p>I shuffle out from between Scátháns claws and get going on the biggest pile of the bunch. Behind me I hear his paw move and his head slowly draws into my field of view. <strong><em>“Had a good nap?” </em></strong>He asks me. <em>“Not sure, don’t feel more awake than before or more rested but at least I don’t have a headache anymore.” </em>I sense him acknowledging what I said and a wordless offer to help me if I need anything.</p><p>The two of us fall nearly completely silent for quite a while, I’m busy working through the herbs and putting them into their respective cans while he spends his time resting and watching me.</p><p><strong><em>“Mind if I go hunt? I can bring something back for you as well. Won’t be long, maybe half an hour.” </em></strong>He says to me after some time.</p><p>“Gah!” I nearly jump up and drop what I was holding. <em>“Don’t spook me like that.” </em>I put a hand on my heart and can feel it pound against my chest. I had completely forgotten about my surroundings.</p><p><strong><em>“Oops.” </em></strong>It’s rather clear that he isn’t sorry in the slightest. <em>“I don’t really care what you get me, I’ll be fine with anything.” </em>I reply once I’ve calmed down a little. <strong><em>“Alright, if you need me just call for me, I’ll be nearby.” </em></strong>He slowly gets up and trots towards the ocean.</p><p>I instinctively duck as he steps over me even though he never comes closer than three feet (1m) to touching me. After watching him leave I take a moment to appreciate how huge the cavern we live in really is. Since one of them had always been here with me it I never quite realized how huge it is in relation to me. “Woah.” I whisper as I tilt my head back to stare the ceiling. I had never imagined seeing a cave this huge and yet I walked into one without realizing.</p><p>I take some time to appreciate the sheer size of it before returning to plucking as a feeling of loneliness creeps in. Luckily, I’m pretty good at ignoring my surroundings and fully immersing myself in even the most boring tasks and I thus quickly forget about my surroundings again.</p><p>As such I also only notice Scáthán returning as he lay down opposite of me, leaving the glowing coals and few feet of space between us. I only briefly look up and nod to acknowledge him before returning my attention to the herbs. He rests his head slightly to my side and spits out a blue mackerel. <strong><em>“Hope this will do as your dinner.” </em></strong></p><p>I quickly glance at it and nod. <em>“I’m not a picky eater and my appetite is miniscule compared to you.” </em> I giggle as I remember the huge pile of fish Skaftá brought home for Dorn a few days ago.</p><p><strong><em>“True but I wanted to make sure nonetheless.” </em></strong>He contently shifts around a little, dragging his claws over the rocky ground. I take another look at the mackerel before picking up another stem and ripping the leaves off it. As I reach for the next one, I notice that my back is starting to be painful enough to distract me and that I better do something about it soon. From the way Skaftá s head is placed I figure his neck must be right behind me. I shift backwards just a bit and indeed I feel my back bump into his scales. <em>“Thanks.” </em>I say to him and lean back, a couple of my vertebrae cracking as I do. <em>“Damn, must have been sitting more hunched over than expected.” </em>I rub my back a little and stretch, making a few more crack audibly. “Ouch.” I quietly exclaim even though it barely hurt.</p><p><strong><em>“Did someone overdo it?” </em></strong>He asks me impishly.</p><p><em>“Not quite, my back just does this if I sit hunched over for a while.” </em>I resume plucking the last bit of the herbs apart, only a small pile remains.</p><p>Soon I put the last of it into its respective container and lightly put a lid on it. “Huzzah.” I exclaim and stretch. <em>“Done, finally.” </em>I proudly look at the neatly lined up boxes, each filled at least halfway.</p><p><em>“Man do I hope that I don’t have to do this again any time soon.” </em>I look at my hands which are stained a deep green from all the oils, a weird stench mix coming off them. <em>“Just need to dry them now.” </em>I feel Scáthán lift his head up and before I can react his neck disappears from behind me, leaving me nearly falling over backwards. With flailing arms, I barely manage to keep my balance but can’t quite recover and end up precariously balanced on my behind.</p><p>Scáthán gently pushes me forward just enough to let me recover. I take a deep breath and sigh. <em>“Thanks for the aid.” </em>I blindly reach behind my back to pat him and end up sticking my hand into his nostril. He blows a bunch of hot air out of his nose to get my hand out of it and quickly pulls his head back. <strong><em>“What was that for?” </em></strong>He asks, more intrigued than upset.</p><p>I slowly turn around, not quite sure what just happened either. <em>“I wasn’t looking and apparently your head wasn’t exactly where I thought.” </em>I shrug and chuckle. <em>“Coincidences make for some of the funnier moments of life.” </em>I reach out to pat him again, this time making sure to avoid his nostrils. Scáthán is a bit weary of my hand drawing close but other than a suspicious stare he stays put. <strong><em>“You’re right but I didn’t need to know how your hand up my nostril feels like.” </em></strong>He gently pushes his head against my head.</p><p><em>“Trust me I didn’t need to know how the inside of it felt either.” </em>I rest my hand flat on his snout and smile. <em>“Anyway, how about we go dry the herbs and call it a day afterwards? I just want to be done for the day.” </em>He nods quickly and I turn around to open the containers again. <em>“So how does this? I just hold them so you can have a good look and that’s it?” </em>I hold one of them up a bit and tilt it towards him. <strong><em>“That isn’t totally necessary but if you want to, sure.” </em></strong> He moves his head a little closer and I sense him focussing on the leaves within. Suddenly the smell of basil fills the cave and I can watch the leaves shrivel up in a matter of seconds.</p><p><strong><em>“And that’s it.” </em></strong>He proclaims moments later.</p><p>I blink a few times and stare into the now rather empty looking tin. <em>“There’s so little left.” </em>I frown a little. I was expecting them to shrink but not this much.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t be too sad Arya, you won’t need much of them for each meal, so it’ll still last you a while.” </em></strong>Scáthán tries to cheer me up.</p><p><em>“I guess you’re right, I still expected more, I guess? No matter, there’s no reason to be upset about this.” </em>I shove my disappointment aside and pick up the next container.</p><p>We repeat the process for each of the remaining ones, each time I’m a little saddened by how little remains after Scáthán pulls the water from the plants. As I put the last one back down with the lid firmly wedged in, I crack a smile. <em>“Even though I’m a little miffed that not much remains, it still feels good to see how much we got done today.” </em>I turn around towards Scáthán. <em>“Thank you so much for the help.” </em>I beckon him to come closer and give his head a tight hug. <strong><em>“You did most of the hard work though, I just sat here and watched really.” </em></strong>He pushes his head against me, nearly lifting me off the ground as he does. <em>“But without your claws and magic I couldn’t have done any of this.”</em> I squirm a little as I try to regain my footing. <strong><em>“Guess I truly am a tool huh.” </em></strong>He says jokingly. <strong><em>“How about you stash your stuff and get comfortable afterwards? It’s been a busy day and it’s getting quite late.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Indeed…Now that you say it, I haven’t really checked in a while.” </em>I stack a few of the wooden cans on top of one another and stick some under my arm to carry them all to my bed in one go.</p><p><strong><em>“Not that you could have since I returned as I’m lying in the way.” </em></strong>He lifts his head enough to let me duck under him, so I don’t need to go all the way around.</p><p>After giving him a quick nod of appreciation, I scurry over to my bed and place the containers in my backpack, then quickly go to peek around the corner to the caves entrance. I can’t see the sun anymore but judging by the orange colour of the sky and clouds it must be close to sunset. <em>“Oh, that means my brother will be back soon.” </em>I feel excitement rise within me, I hadn’t quite realized how much I missed him today. As I stand there, staring at the ocean I suddenly notice how cold the wind blowing into the cave had gotten. <em>“That’s probably why </em><em>Scáthán placed himself the way he did.” </em>I quickly get back into the cave before I catch a cold.</p><p>As I turn around, I see Scáthán pick up a piece of firewood and carry it over to the glimmering ashes of the campfire.</p><p>He gestures me to come to his side and I gladly oblige, the prospect of a warm and comfy embrace being rather enticing after sitting on the floor all day.</p><p>Right as I’m climbing over his tail, he lifts it up with me lying on top of it. He arches his tail such that I end up sliding closer to the tip, however I end up flailing about too much and fall off.</p><p>I lose my sense of direction as I desperately grasp for something to hold onto but only end up grabbing at thin air. Suddenly I feel his tail wrap around my hip and a split second later I come to a sudden stop.</p><p>Still rather dazed, I hastily turn my head trying to figure out where I am. Somehow, I ended up next to his side, neatly wrapped in his tail from my toes to my shoulders. After my initial confusion I get comfortable and snuggle into the windings of his tail. <em>“Did you plan for this to happen or did you just react?” </em>I ask him while trying to free one of my arms.</p><p><strong><em>“A bit of both, I had a feeling you’d freak out and fall off, but I didn’t have a specific plan for if you did.” </em></strong>He rests his head next to me such that we’re eye to eye.</p><p>Having an eye, the size of my head stare at me so closely leaves me with a feeling of unease in my gut but it’s shoved aside easily enough when I remind myself who that eye belongs to.</p><p>Still, Scáthán moves his head a bit further away to give me some space.</p><p>Finally, I manage to free one arm and rest it atop his tail. <em>“Why did I want to break this one free again?” </em>I ask myself, then shrug. <em>“Can’t have been that important. I guess I’m free to pet him whenever I want to now.” </em>I slowly close my eyes, simply enjoying the comfort of his tail and the warmth coming off of it.</p><p>Once again, it’s not long before I wind up zoned out, I can sense his mind to my right but do my best to ignore it and instead just stay zoned out so I may sense further away minds again.</p><p>My sense of time is completely absent while my mind wanders about and as such, I have little clue how late it is when I notice a group of formless blobs pass far above us. A blue one is the most clearly visible one of the bunch but there are hints of three more minds floating along it.</p><p><em>“Could it be?” </em>I try my best to focus on them and I can watch a thin tendril rapidly grow upwards towards them. Sadly, the further away it goes the thinner it gets and soon it simply fizzles out, too thin to continue growing. <em>“Damn.” </em>I have to content with watching them pass over me, turn around not too far away and quickly approach me again. <em>“That answers my question about who it could be.” </em>Shortly after I hear a splash and something big wading through water. I raise my head a little to look their way and indeed I spot the same big blue blob three smaller ones trailing behind it. Now that Skaftá had arrived back home I shake myself out of my trance and bring myself back to the real world.</p><p>I immediately notice that Scáthán had lifted his head and was looking over his back. Moments later he lifts me up to his back and carefully undoes his tail to place me on his back.</p><p>Skaftá had already rounded the corner, Dorn gliding along her, a knackered looking Coille lying on her back, all fours outstretched and a tired Aonar sitting behind his sister.</p><p>
  <em>“Looks like they had an exhausting day.” </em>
</p><p>The moment Dorn sees me sitting on Scátháns back he quickly flaps his wings a few times to gain enough altitude to reach me. <em>“He’s heading straight for me…” </em>I move aside, hoping to avoid a direct collision but he still flies straight towards me. I’m suddenly awfully aware of just how high up I am and that I stand little chance keeping myself up here if he were to fly into me.</p><p>Just as I begin to ponder whether to duck or lie down flat, I feel Scátháns tail wrap around my hip. <strong><em>“You’re safe Arya, I’ll make sure you’ll stay put.” </em></strong>I nod and lean forward a little. <em>“Thank you.” </em></p><p>Inches before Dorn would ram into me, he suddenly angles his wings up flaps them as hard as he can, bringing himself to an abrupt stop. He places his hind legs on Scátháns back and has barely enough momentum left to slowly fall forward and into my arms. Surprised by his abrupt stop and lack of an impact I just sit there and stare blankly into the air as he puts his front paws around me.</p><p><em>“Uh…Welcome back brother.” </em>I slowly put my arms around him. <strong><em>“You didn’t really think I’d ram you off dads back, did you?” </em></strong>He pulls me close and moves his hind legs to my side such that he sort of ends up sitting in my lap. <em>“If I said no, I’d be lying.” </em>I pat his back and hug him tightly.</p><p><strong><em>“I wouldn’t fault you either way.” </em></strong>He rests his head on top of mine and smiles.</p><p>In the meantime, Skaftá had wandered to her resting spot. Right as she lies down, Aonar hops off her back and tries to glide to the ground but he lacks the energy to do so nearly as gracefully as Dorn. He fumbles and stumbles as he lands but avoids tripping and falling just barely.</p><p>Meanwhile, Coille is looking at her mother with eyes entirely unwilling and probably unable to move. Skaftá carefully grabs her with her jaws and gently lowers her to the ground where she collapses immediately, all fours outstretched. <em>“Oh no, I hope she’s okay…” </em>I watch her lie motionless with growing concern.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m alright, just a little winded.” </em></strong>She replies weakly. <em>“I’m not sure it’s just a little.” </em>I think to myself but figure that she’ll probably be fine.</p><p>Before I can worry much more about her, I hear Scáthán scold Aonar. <strong><em>“Hey, stop that.” </em></strong>I quickly turn my head to see him paw at the fish dad had caught for me. Aonar looks up at his father, then back at the fish, pawing at it once more. I can sense Scáthán glaring at him intensely which luckily makes Aonar realize that he should probably quit. He looks up at me. <strong><em>“Sorry sis.” </em></strong>He says to me before crawling between Scátháns front legs and lying down.</p><p><em>“Uhm…I wasn’t even that bothered…” </em>I think to myself. <em>“But I guess.” </em>Before I can waste much more time thinking about it, I already feel Scáthán lift me and Dorn off his back and place us next to him. <strong><em>“It’s probably a good idea to make yourself dinner now Arya. Otherwise your brother might get more silly ideas.” </em></strong>He rests his head next to me and Dorn.</p><p><em>“Sure, I’m actually quite hungry again. Just one question. Why did you scold Aonar? I couldn’t sense any ill intent in him?” </em>Dorn and I break out of our embrace and I pick up the fish.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“He was only curious indeed but with him we want to make sure he knows to leave your food alone because otherwise you’ll end up having to fight him every time. You might have noticed that he likes to push the limits of others around him and this was his first attempt.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod idly as I let Dorn cut and gut the fish. <em>“I see, I did notice that a few days ago and I imagine I missed a few more instances when you were out.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Not many since he often realizes that he shouldn’t push his limits but sometimes he does lose himself a little.” </em></strong>Brief images of Aonar repeatedly trying to bully Coille flow into my mind, he only lets off once Skaftá growls and scolds him.</p><p><em>“Good, I hope he leaves me alone with his shenanigans…” </em>I feel a bit of knot in my stomach as I imagine how what he was doing with my sister would end for me. <strong><em>“He won’t dare as long as I’m around sister.” </em></strong>Dorn places a paw on my shoulder.</p><p>I rub his head and smile. <em>“Thank you.” </em></p><p>My attention returns to the fish that Dorn had neatly separated into two halves. I weigh them with my hands and figure that one will surely do for me. <em>“Guess I can let my brother have it.” </em></p><p>Before I can put my thoughts into words, he has already grabbed the food out of my hand and devoured half of it. <strong><em>“Thanks sis.” </em></strong>He says to me, some of the fish still hanging out of his mouth.</p><p>I laugh and shake my head. <em>“That’s my brother, always so greedy.” </em>I get up to arrange the firewood</p><p>Scáthán had piled up for me such that the stone slab rests nicely on it. After taking a step back I give Scáthán a nod, signalling him to light fire.</p><p>He breathes in deeply, then unleashes a wave of fire from his mouth, using his tongue to channel it into a thin, bright beam. In a matter of seconds, the wood has caught on fire as well and he shuts his mouth again, snuffing the flames.</p><p>Before the fire grows too big, I quickly throw my half of the fish onto the rock and sit back down next to my brother.</p><p><em>“Much appreciated dad.” </em>I warm my hands and feet on the fire.</p><p><strong><em>“No matter.” </em></strong>He pauses for a moment. <strong><em>“I feel honoured that you’ve taken to calling me your father.” </em></strong>I take a moment to realize what he’s talking about. <em>“Oh…” </em></p><p><em>“I don’t think I had one previously. You’re my first and only father.” </em>I turn my head towards him and smile. <em>“That other pers- erm…thing wasn’t anything to me.” </em>I reach out and barely manage to rub his snout. <em>“You’re my father, have been and always will be. Just like </em><em>Skaftá is my mother. You lot are my family now and if you ask me, I never had one before.” </em></p><p>Scáthán smiles happily and even though I can’t see Skaftá I feel that she’s happy too. <strong><em>“Don’t let your food burn daughter.” </em></strong></p><p>“Oh shit.” I curse and hastily flip the fish around, trying not to get burned by the flames licking up past the edge of the rock. The underside of the fish had already started turning black in some places.</p><p><em>“Whew, luckily it’s just the skin.” </em>I remind myself and sigh a sigh of relief. <em>“Hmpf, I’ll still need to get it out of there somehow…” </em>I peer at Scáthán. <em>“Could you maybe?” </em></p><p>He raises his head a little and tilts it slightly. <strong><em>“Sure thing. I’ll grab it when you deem it done.” </em></strong></p><p>With a quick nod I look back into the flames and keep warming myself. While I couldn’t see it, the sun had probably set by now and it’s about to get pretty cold.</p><p>Since the fire is still fresh and burning quite hot it doesn’t take long for dinner to be fully cooked.</p><p><em>“Alright, this’ll do.” </em>Right as I finish my thought, I hear Scáthán lift his paw to my right. He gingerly pulls the rock out of the fire, balancing it on his claws, then lets it slide onto the ground.</p><p>I almost reach for it but then remember that it’s still scathing hot and that I better be patient. <em>“I’ve done that before. Don’t keep making the same mistake.” </em>I remind myself and impatiently stare at my dinner, hoping that my glare would make it cool down faster in some magic way.</p><p>While I wait, Dorn makes himself comfortable next to me, resting his body in a semicircle around the fire and his head on my lap.</p><p>Occasionally I poke at my meal, hoping that it had cooled down enough but just like before, the rock keeps it hot for quite a while.</p><p>After much too long for my taste the fish has cooled down to the point where I can hold it without burning my hand. I try to pick it up but notice that as soon as I lift more than a few inches (~5cm) at once, it starts falling apart.</p><p>With a groan I accept my fate of having to eat it in plenty of smaller portions. <em>“At least I’ll feel full more quickly? At least that’s what they said about why you should eat more smaller portions.” </em></p><p>I tear off a roughly two-inch piece (~5cm) and pick the flesh off it, looking for fishbones and flicking them into the fire as I go.</p><p>Surprisingly, it tastes rather nice, even without any seasoning. <em>“I wonder if that’s just because I’m hungry or if this actually tastes good…not that it matters much.” </em></p><p>Soon, I swallow the last bite and throw the skin into the fire where it burns with a quiet sizzle. Sighing contently, I stretch and let my eyes wander about the cave. It had gone completely dark outside, the only light around being the fire.</p><p>As my eyes wander close to the fire again, I notice that Dorn looks oddly long. I tilt my head and shift around to see if it’s just the perspective messing with but no, he sure looks some two feet longer than before, at least.</p><p>He lifts his head out of my lap and stares up at me. <strong><em>“I did grow a bunch, didn’t I?” </em></strong>He asks me giddily. My jaw drops just slightly as I slowly nod. <em>“Let me see how tall you got.” </em>I get up and straighten my back, before we used to be about eye to eye like this.</p><p>Dorn lazily shuffles close to me and stands up on his hind legs. His head rises past mine and only stops a rough foot(~30cm) above me. <em>“Darn…” </em>I look up at him, my mouth still standing open.</p><p><em>“You grow faster than bamboo.” </em>I shake my head in disbelief. <em>“Just how much more do you want to grow?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“That’s a rhetorical question, right?” </em></strong>He rests his head atop of mine and puts his front legs around my tummy. I peer over at Scáthán and realize that he’ll end up just as tall as he is. <em>“Yea, don’t answer that one. I know you grow fast but seeing it happen is still…unsettling?” </em>I reach to rub his head and try to gently remove myself from his embrace.</p><p>He lets go off me and drops back onto his paws. <strong><em>“I’m sure it feels weird. Your kind grows so slowly after all and nothing quite compares to our growth rate.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“No animal at least, some types of bamboo can grow as fast or faster as your kind. But only vertically, in terms of volume growth nothing can compare.” </em>I stretch and yawn, now that my stomach is full sleepiness starts to overcome me.</p><p>I stagger over to Scátháns side and as I go to sit down, he already wraps his tail around me, gently coaxing me into lying down instead. Dorn gets himself comfortable next to me and rests his head on my chest. We look at each other with drowsy eyes, me more so than him. <strong><em>“Good night Arya.” </em></strong>He says to me in between slow blinks.</p><p>I smile contently and wiggle around a little. <em>“Good night Dorn.” </em>I rest my hands on the back of his head and shut my eyes.</p><p>Even though I feel quite tired I can’t seem to drift off yet and end up lying still with closed eyes for a while, listening to the waves crash outside.</p><p>Suddenly I feel someone tug on left arm.</p><p>I slowly turn my head and peer at whoever it is with barely open eyes. “Coille?” I grumble quietly as I rub my eyes with one hand. The fire in the background makes it hard for me to make out the colour of the scales.</p><p>She nods slowly and curls up next to me. Even after having nearly an hour to recover she looks very tired still. <em>“Aww, poor her.” </em>I gently pet her head.</p><p>Coille murmurs happily and gently pulls my hand closer so she can wrap around it. A smile grows on my face as I watch her and I try to rub her side, though my movement is quite restricted.</p><p>Once she has made herself comfortable, she lovingly rubs her head against my arm.</p><p>
  <em>“Was today just exhausting or are you so tired because your brothers gave you hell for yesterday.” </em>
</p><p>She stops and turns her head towards me. <strong><em>“Both, sort of.” </em></strong>She yawns widely and licks her chops. <strong><em>“Dorn only got back at me once and then left me be for the day, Aonar was much more annoying about it. It got to the point where mom had to intervene. Fortunately, that was enough for him to leave me alone as well.” </em></strong>She rests her head next to my arm. <strong><em>“Though I could have handled either one thing pretty well. Being out and about the whole day and my brother trying to bully me at the same time is too much for me however.” </em></strong>Coille shuts her eyes and smacks her lips once before she starts to drift off too.</p><p><em>“I can see how that would get tiring…” </em>I shut my eyes as well and wait for my mind to drift off.</p><p>After some time, I finally join my brother and sister in their dreams, they don’t seem to notice me just yet.</p><p>They both appear to be reliving parts of their day. I see the three of them sitting on Skaftás back as she lands in a familiar looking grassland. <em>“Looks to be where we were two days ago.” </em>I note to myself.</p><p>Coille and Aonar quickly hop off their mothers back but before Dorn can join them Skaftá stops him and stares him down. <strong><em>“What did we say about using magic?” </em></strong>Anger resonates in her voice and Dorn instinctively ducks.</p><p><strong><em>“I shouldn’t do it yet because it isn’t safe.” </em></strong>He replies meekly.</p><p><strong><em>“Then why did you do it? Directed at your sister no less.” </em></strong>Her lips tremble as she barely contains a snarl. <strong><em>“She was freezing…” </em></strong>He looks up at her with beady eyes. <strong><em>“You should have gotten us to help then. Do you want to risk killing your sister?” </em></strong>She’s not at all impressed by his attempts to talk her down.</p><p><strong><em>“No, but-“ </em></strong>Skaftá cuts him off with a low growl. <strong><em>“No but. Had your attention slipped for even a split second the spell could have easily ended her. Doesn’t matter how little magic energy you possess or how short the spell is.” </em></strong>She blows a puff of smoke though it disperses before reaching him.</p><p><strong><em>“Sorry…” </em></strong>He averts his eyes for a moment.</p><p><strong><em>“A sorry wouldn’t bring her back.” </em></strong>Skaftá pauses for a second. <strong><em>“Listen, there’s nothing that can be done about it now but please refrain from using magic for now. Doesn’t matter how confident you are in your abilities. Even we don’t like using magic on her for fear of mistakes.” </em></strong>She snarls, making Dorn flinch. <strong><em>“So, promise me, don’t use magic on your sister. And if I catch you doing it again there’ll be consequences. Promise?”</em></strong></p><p><strong><em>“I promise.” </em></strong>Dorn replies meekly, I’ve never seen him so afraid.</p><p><strong><em>“Good.” </em></strong>She shakes her head and makes a noise that sounds similar to a sigh.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you very mad mom?” </em></strong>Dorn asks her quietly.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m not mad, just disappointed. You need to keep in mind that magic isn’t something to use light-heartedly ever.” </em></strong>She sounds almost normal again, only a slight hint of upset remains.</p><p><strong><em>“Okay. Thank you, mom.” </em></strong>I can sense that he’s rather upset with himself.</p><p>Skaftá lets him dwell on his thoughts for a little before nudging him. <strong><em>“How about you go join your siblings now. There’s no need to dwell on it forever, it happened, and you know it wasn’t good of you to do that. Now don’t let it happen again and everything will be fine.” </em></strong>She smiles and tilts her head a little.</p><p>Dorn replies with a slow nod and then leaps off her back, landing squarely on his brother as he tries to philander after his sister.</p><p>A fight erupts between the three of them, accompanied by much growling and snarling and in the end none can quite emerge victorious. Though it does look like Dorn has the upper hand most of the time.</p><p>Right after they settle down from their fighting, Dorn notices me watching their dreams and pulls me in as well.</p><p>Suddenly I find myself among the three of them sneaking through the grass near the river I bathed in two days ago, Skaftá watching from far above.</p><p>By the sound of it they are stalking a flock of geese. Surprisingly they’ve so far managed to stay undiscovered even in this suboptimal turf.</p><p>As they draw close enough, Aonar pounces at one and a cloud of feathers appears as he rips it apart.</p><p>The rest of the flock immediately flees, with much hissing and quacking. This is the moment Dorn and Coille had waited for, they both take flight and dive into the turmoil that Aonar caused.</p><p>They both don’t outright kill the geese but rather break their wings or make them otherwise unable to keep flying. In the meantime, Aonar waits on the ground to dispatch the ones that hit the ground still alive.</p><p>Still, the largest part of the flock survives and makes their escape. That is until Skaftá descends upon them like a harbinger of the apocalypse.</p><p>Before they can scatter too much, she bathes the flock in fire, making it rain burning geese. The few surviving one scatter in all directions but even for them it’s too late as Dorn and Coille quickly close the gap and take them out too.</p><p>Suddenly the grassland falls eerily quiet, only the sounds of the wind blowing and their wings cutting through the air can be heard where before the chatter of geese was filling the air.</p><p>They spend a few minutes gathering the scattered corpses of the geese before my siblings engorge on the spoils of their hunt. Even after all three of them had their share there’s still plenty left but for Skaftá it isn’t much more than a hearty appetizer.</p><p>Afterwards they spend a good while resting before my siblings’ resume playing, well Aonar and Dorn do. Coille tries to stay out of it but ends up getting dragged into it by Aonar.</p><p>The four of them spend the rest of the day alternating between hunting, resting and playing while Skaftá watches over them and occasionally helps out while hunting.</p><p>Throughout the day I do notice that Aonar keeps swiping at Coille, trying to trip her up and generally getting on her nerves but only he thinks Skaftá isn’t paying attention.</p><p>Late noon he’s up to his usual shenanigans of trying to bully Coille when suddenly Skaftá wraps her tail around him mid pounce. She lifts him close to her head and growls angrily. <strong><em>“Don’t think I didn’t see you messing with your sister all day. Leave her be now or else…” </em></strong>Her eyes narrow into tiny slits and her lips twitch as she barely contains the urge to bare her teeth. Aonar tries to break out of her grasp but she just tightens her tail more. <strong><em>“Just because she messed with you and your brother once doesn’t give you permission to constantly attack her.” </em></strong>He keeps squirming a little before going mostly limp and nodding. She growls one last time before placing him on the ground again. <strong><em>“And don’t think I won’t notice if you keep this up.” </em></strong> </p><p>After getting scolded Aonar leaves his sister in peace, he even stops bothering Dorn as well. Probably because he doesn’t want to risk finding out what his mother meant with “or else…”</p><p>Suddenly, Dorn notices me watching his dream and pulls me into it. While I had been watching from the outside before, kind of like looking into a crystal ball, I’m now a third person spectator. I can move freely if I want to and Dorn and Coille seem to be aware of me but no one else is.</p><p>I get to follow them along for the rest of the day, watch them as Skaftá teaches them about the difference between high and low altitude flight and many other things that simply go over my head. Watch as they romp around, try together to take down their mother, only for her to throw them off her with the flick of a paw. Watch as they get tired of messing around and peacefully rest together until it comes time for another hunting lesson.</p><p>Before I realize it, their day is over, and our dreams start drifting apart. Though I don’t end up remembering the dreams from that part of the night and before long I feel myself drift back into consciousness.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Endless Adventure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I open my eyes and find myself in the real world once more. I can’t tell if it’s still night or morning already but judging by how awake I feel I must have slept enough.</p><p>I try to stretch but my left arm is refusing to move, there’s no movement at all, if it were only stuck, I could at least feel my muscles move but no, there’s nothing at all. I grab my upper arm with my right hand and pull it up onto my chest. The arm feels like a dead fish, flopping around uselessly.</p><p><em>“What the fuck?” </em>I shake my arm vigorously and feel my shoulder ache. <em>“I guess it got too little blood flow… that would also explain why it’s so cold.” </em>I massage it and wait for the tingling to set it as blood resumes flowing through it.</p><p>Soon it feels like an army of ants is crawling over my skin and my sense of touch slowly returns to my arm.</p><p>We get to relax for a few more minutes before Dorn stirs as well and wakes up. He stretches and moves his head off of me, some joints in his neck audibly cracking as he does. I raise an eyebrow and eye him suspiciously. <em>“Are you alright?” </em></p><p>He shakes his head and neck, a slight snarl on his lips. <strong><em>“Yes, just a stiff neck.” </em></strong>A quiet growl escapes his mouth as he settles down again. <strong><em>“Much better.” </em></strong>Dorn smiles and lies down flat.</p><p>I try to wiggle myself out from Scátháns tail but to no avail. <em>“I wonder when he’s going to wake up” </em>I shut my eyes and try to feel out his mind but before I can get to that I already hear his voice. <strong><em>“You wanted something?” </em></strong>He quickly unwraps most of his tail and uses the last bit to gently place me on the ground.</p><p><em>“So, you were already awake?” </em>I ask him while I get myself situated against his side. <strong><em>“Indeed.</em></strong><strong><em> I was just waiting for </em></strong><strong><em>you to try and reach out to my </em></strong><strong><em>mind.” </em></strong> He moves his head into my field of view. <strong><em>“A</em></strong><strong><em>nd don’t get too comfortable, we’ll be leaving soon</em></strong><strong><em>.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Oh?” </em>I tilt my head and look up at him. <em>“Just the two of us or the whole lot?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Only us two at first, though we’ll likely join </em>
  </strong>
  <span>
    <strong>
      <em>Skaftá</em>
    </strong>
  </span>
  <strong>
    <em> and your siblings later on in the day. Also take your backpack and the destroyed shirt with you.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Alright, where are we going?” </em>I ask as I get up to gather my things and put on my jacket.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You wanted some salt so we’ll be getting that, then we’ll see if I can help you get past your fear of heights.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Huh? I’m not that afraid of heights.” </em>I shoot him a wary look.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“There comes a point for almost every human. But I guess it might be more accurate if I called it trust building exercise.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Okay, now I’m worried. What exactly do you have planned for me?” </em>I stop and place my hands on my hips. <strong><em>“You needn’t be.” </em></strong>He grins. <strong><em>“I was planning on taking you out to the middle of the ocean so we can ge</em></strong><strong><em>t you used to the kind of manoeuvres we might pull in mid-air without you worrying and panicking because you fear the fall.”</em></strong></p><p>I’m not at all convinced by his words. <em>“What does it matter if I hit the water or the ground after a </em><em>mile-long fall? They’re about the same at that point.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I know, but that’s what we have magic for. There would obviously be a spell to protect you from any possible impact. Technically I could do the same over solid ground too but water both makes the spell easier and you’d feel a bit safer.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod slowly. <em>“</em><em>Alright, I see you had a plan. Doesn’t mean I’m fully convinced yet.” </em></p><p>I kneel down between Dorn and Coille and rub their heads. <em>“See you two later.” </em>After adjusting the straps of my backpack, I turn towards Scáthán. <em>“Ready to go.”</em></p><p>He swiftly picks me up and places me on his back, then heads out of the cave. Just before we disappear behind the corner, I look over my shoulder and wave goodbye to my siblings. It feels a bit weird that I didn’t get to say goodbye to Skaftá or Aonar since they’re both still sleeping but it probably wouldn’t matter anyway.</p><p>Skaftá flies along the cliff, staying fairly close to water for the most part.</p><p>Eventually, once the cliff has turned into a flat but rocky shoreline, he lands just far enough inland to be on solid ground. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Before we go out to the ocean, I suggest you put away your backpack and jacket, they’ll only weigh you down if they get soaked.” </em></strong>He places me on the ground once more.</p><p>For a moment I wonder why but then figure that it’s just in case I do fall off and land in the ocean.</p><p>A quick glance around tells me that I really don’t have many good options to hide my stuff here, so I decide to stuff my jacket and my shoes into the backpack and wedge it in between two heavy rocks. Fortunately, there’s plenty of those next to the shore. <em>“I sure hope the tides don’t rise too high…” </em>I think to myself as I lean into one of the rocks and try to move it aside.</p><p>With my much effort I manage to make it tilt over just far enough to create a space I can hide my stuff. Then, with equal effort I move the rock back to its original place. <em>“And that I don’t forget where I hid my shit.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I’ll keep track of where you hid it for you.” </em></strong>Scáthán inspects the rocks I had just been messing with. <strong><em>“And it’s already a high tide so the water won’t be rising any more than this.” </em></strong>He tilts his head and nudges the rocks, making one of them move a little. <strong><em>“I must say, I’m impressed with your strength.</em></strong><strong><em>” </em></strong>I too tilt my head and look at him with confusion. <em>“What do you mean? They weren’t that heavy.” </em>I place one hand on them and try to push them in an attempt to show him how light I felt they were. He i</p><p>But they wouldn’t budge. <em>“Oh…” </em>I place another hand on it and push as hard as I can, and it finally shifts just a tiny fraction of an inch. <em>“Eh, well. They aren’t that heavy.” </em></p><p>Scáthán grins widely. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>I’d say they weigh around 450 pounds (~200kg).” </em></strong>He raises his head again and stares off into the horizon. <em>“You think so?” </em>I try to move them once more, but they wouldn’t budge again. <em>“I guess…” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Either way, we should probably head out. I don’t want you to run around in just a shirt for too long.” </em></strong>He swiftly picks me up and drops me right behind his neck. <em>“Indeed.” </em>I shudder and rub my forearms. <em>“But if that rock really is 450 pounds, then how could I have possibly built up the muscles to move them?” </em></p><p>Scáthán takes off and quickly flies away from the shore while staying close to the waves. <em>“Is it your magic influencing and changing me?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It could very well be. I’m not sure on the timeline for the changes we told you about but it’s not unrealistic for the first effects to show themselves after a month or two.” </em></strong>I can sense that he isn’t totally sure himself either but deems this the most likely explanation.</p><p><em>“Hmmm.” </em>I scratch my chin. <em>“If the effects stay limit to things like that, then I don’t mind them.” </em>I imagine how I’d eventually end up with superhuman strength and how it might allow me to not completely be at the mercy of my siblings.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We can’t be sure, but I think anything more significant will take a very long time to become noticeable.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“What other, more significant changes are you talking about? Mom mentioned something some time ago, but she couldn’t really tell me anything specific.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I’m don’t know more than she does. We’ll watch you closely to keep track of any changes.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>A feeling of unease mixed with excitement fills me. <em>“All we can do is wait and watch.” </em>Horrors of me turning into a horribly disfigured mutant run through my mind. <strong><em>“You won’</em></strong><strong><em>t end up as some malformed monster, there’s a limit to how much being around us can affect you.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“You think so? I’d really hate to have to choose between leaving or turning into some abomination.” </em>I almost tear up a for a moment.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m certain.” </em></strong>There’s not an ounce of uncertainty in his voice.</p><p>I nod slowly as I try to push my concerns aside. <em>“You’re right, this isn’t some fantasy world where miracles happen. I’m still human and there’s nothing that can change t</em><em>hat.” </em></p><p>Scáthán grunts affirmatively and we fly on in silence, only the sounds of the wind accompanying us.</p><p>Soon, he enters a glide and lands in the water. <strong><em>“This looks like a good place to stop.” </em></strong></p><p>I look around to see nothing but water around, what makes this the spot to stop at I can’t explain but it also doesn’t matter. <em>“So, what’s the plan now?” </em>I look at him expectantly</p><p><strong><em>“I’ll put a spell on you that breaks the water’s surface tension if you get close enough. This means that no matter from how high you fall; the impact will never hurt you.” </em></strong>He turns his head towards me, his eyes boring into mine.</p><p><em>“I see…” </em>I’m not quite convinced. <strong><em>“I know it sounds a bit ridiculous </em></strong><strong><em>but trust me it’ll work. If you want to try it first, you can jump off my back to test it.” </em></strong></p><p>I simply nod as an answer.</p><p>Scátháns eyes take on a slight glow for a few seconds, then it fades again. <strong><em>“I also included a spell similar to the one we put on you last time you went for a swim. Thus, even if you end up under </em></strong><strong><em>water, you’ll be able to breathe.” </em></strong>He pauses for a second. <strong><em>“Now why don’t you try it.” </em></strong>He smiles encouragingly.</p><p>Carefully, I stand up on his back and peek down into the water. I can’t see the bottom and I have a hunch that it goes down deep. <em>“Eh, erm… Can we try a little lower at first?” </em>I feel rather embarrassed. <em>“I never actually jumped from anything higher than three feet (1m) …” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It’s okay Arya. Don’t be embarrassed.” </em></strong>He moves the tip of his tail such that I can step on it.</p><p>I very carefully place one foot on it, then the other. Very slowly he lowers me down until the taller waves almost reach my feet. <em>“Alright. Here goes nothing.” </em>With a tiny hop I jump off his tail and let myself fall into the water. The moment my feet touch the surface I know that something is off, it almost feels like the water is voluntarily parting below me. As more and more of me gets engulfed by the ocean I notice that it only felt different when my feet entered the water.</p><p>I quickly swim back to the surface where Scáthán has already placed his tail such that I can easily grab onto it. <em>“Well that was an experience for sure.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“See, it’s working as promised.” </em></strong>He wraps his tail around me and lifts me onto his back. <strong><em>“How about we try a little higher now?” </em></strong></p><p>I frown slightly but nod, a jump from ten feet should be fine, even if the spell doesn’t work it won’t hurt too much. <strong><em>“Though I’d prefer you not jump from the tip of my tail. It doesn’t deal with the weight too well.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“How come? You lift things much heavier all the time.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I also can wrap much more of my tail around these things. You were standing on just the last foot (30cm) of it. I’d much rather you stand on my head, that way I can hold you easily and have much better control of the height.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I take a moment to think about it. <em>“Okay, but don’t try anything funny.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I would never.” </em></strong>He grins mischievously and moves his head right next to me, then lifts me out of the water and carefully places me at the tip of his snout.</p><p>I shudder as the windchill makes me shiver, maybe this wasn’t as good of an idea as I thought.</p><p>He raises his head until he’s roughly ten feet (3m) above the water. I lean forwards just a bit and surprisingly it doesn’t look as high as I remember it feeling back in school.</p><p>
  <em>“Weird…must be because I could see straight to the bottom when I was doing this for swimming class and the associated badges.” </em>
</p><p>I take a deep breath, bend my knees and jump off. After a split second of falling my feet touch water again and again it feels like the water almost voluntarily splits beneath me.</p><p><em>“Well it seems to be working, this didn’t feel any different than three feet (1m).” </em>I think to myself as I swim to the surface.</p><p>This time Scáthán lifts me out of the water and onto his head almost right away after I poke my head out of the water. <strong><em>“See. It’s working.” </em></strong>He sounds quite excited.</p><p>
  <em>“Indeed, but can we try a few more times. I still have an uneasy feeling about this.”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“I didn’t plan on taking to the skies with you before you felt safe anyway.” </em></strong>He raises his head to ten feet (3m) again.</p><p>As I peek over the edge, I gesture him to raise his head further. At around seventeen feet (5m) I feel the unease return and tell him to stop. This time it takes quite a lot more courage of me to jump but as soon as my feet touch the not the tiniest bit of pain, I feel relief wash over me.</p><p><em>“This is starting to be fun.” </em>I note to myself and swim back to the surface.</p><p><strong><em>“Again?” </em></strong>Scáthán asks me. <em>“Again.” </em><em><span>I reply.</span></em></p><p>
  <em>
    <span>We go higher once more, to thirty feet (10m) this ti</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p><em>“Oh boy.” </em>I think to myself as I lean forward and peek into the ocean. <em>“Do I really want to…” </em></p><p>I step back and almost tell dad to go a bit lower. <em>“No. I can do this.” </em>I stare straight at the horizon and inch closer to the edge. My heart races, my breath runs flat and fast and my instinct scream at me to not do it. <em>“Here goes nothing.” </em></p><p>With the tiniest hop I send myself over the edge, keeping my head straight as I fall.</p><p>A second and a half later I hit the water with a loud splash but still, no pain, nothing. It feels no different to sliding into a bathtub, just really, really fast.</p><p><em>“Holy shit.” </em>I almost forget that I’m underwater and take a deep breath right after coming to a stop.</p><p>
  <em>“Well that would have gone sideways, good thing dad thought ahead.” </em>
</p><p>I swim back to the surface and immediately grab onto Scátháns tail so he can get me onto his head and up into the air again. While I was almost paralyzed by fear before I now feel equally excited and afraid of the next jump. <strong><em>“Same height again?” </em></strong>He asks me as he raises his head.</p><p>
  <em>“Same height.” </em>
</p><p>As I peek down, I still feel my heart drop, but I manage to ignore my instincts and jump once more.</p><p>Watching the ocean rapidly approach as I plummet through the air strikes some primal fear in me and has me grasping at thin air. But the moment I’m underwater again the fear is gone, and I feel like I’ve gotten just a bit more accustomed to it.</p><p>I decide to jump a few more times and by the fifth round I barely hesitate before throwing myself into the ocean. <em>“I think I’m ready to take to the skies.” </em>I say to him, confidently.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Very good. I’m glad you could get past your inner chicken.”  </em>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p> He places me on his back instead of his snout. <strong><em>“But before we go, I’ll dry you off. Wouldn’t want you to get sick.” </em></strong>He turns his head towards me, and his eyes take on a slight glow. Immediately I start feeling a gentle warmth creep through my skin and clothes. It rapidly grows into an almost uncomfortable heat and I can feel warm humid air rise off my clothes.</p><p>Fortunately, the spell doesn’t last too long and just half a minute later I feel bone-dry again.</p><p><em>“Thanks.” </em>I give him a nod of appreciation and huddle against his neck.</p><p>Scáthán spreads his wings and with a few heavy flaps lifts himself out of the water, then he quickly rises into the sky in a steady upwards spiral.</p><p>I’m tempted to keep staring at his scales and ignore the fact that we’ll be hundreds of feet up in the air soon. <em>“This is not what you came here for. You came here to get over your fear of heights. </em><em>It’s also not the first time we’re doing this. Besides, we’re just steadily rising, there’s virtually no risk of falling.” </em>With that I slowly lean to the right and peek over his shoulder. Surprisingly, we’re only three hundred odd feet (~100m) above the ocean. I want to pull my head back and just hide but instead force myself to keep staring down.</p><p>Scáthán soon enters a steady glide and maintains his altitude, probably to let me get used to the height.</p><p>It takes quite a while for me to calm down and ignore my instincts telling me that this is highly unsafe but eventually, I don’t feel my heart pounding against my chest and the sting in my gut has disappeared as well.</p><p><em>“I think I’m ready to go higher.” </em>I quietly think to myself.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Good, good. I’ll give you two choices here. We can stay at this level and do some breakneck manoeuvres or go much, much higher, wait for you to accustom to that altitude and then do the same. Only difference would be that the further up we go the easier it gets for me to catch you if you were to fall.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“It doesn’t matter if I fall from three hundred or three thousand feet (~100m &amp; ~1000m) up does it? If I hit the water, it’s all the same.” </em>I keep my eyes on the ocean’s waves.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Indeed, if I do fail to catch you the impact would be all the same no matter the height, only difference would be how deep below the surface you go and since you can breathe under water that doesn’t matter either.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I take a moment to think about it. Going up to over half a mile sounds scary but if it actually ends up making it easier for him to catch me it might be the better idea.</p><p><em>“Alright then, up we go.” </em>The sound of his wings cutting through the air immediately grows louder and faster and I feel inertia push me into his body.</p><p><strong><em>“How high shall we go then?” </em></strong>He asks me as he enters his usual upward spiral while I watch the waves shrink into nothing more than wrinkles in the water’s surface.</p><p><em>“Uh…Uhm…”</em> I stutter as my mind races to try and find a good middle ground.</p><p>
  <em>“How does a </em>
  <em>mile (~1600m) sound?” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Sure.” </em></strong>He quickly replies as he leans backwards and climbs upwards at an even more aggressive angle. I inhale sharply and cling to his neck, already regretting my choice.</p><p><strong><em>“Relax, let go off my neck, you </em></strong><strong><em>won’t fall trust me.</em></strong><strong><em> Just press your legs into my side.</em></strong><strong><em>” </em></strong>Scáthán tries to soothe me.</p><p>I don’t quite believe him but after some hesitating, I do as he told me and remove one arm. <em>“Nothing, not yet at least.” </em>Carefully, I ease the grip of my other arm too, keeping both ready to snap back onto his neck the instant I feel myself slipping even the tiniest bit.</p><p>Surprisingly, even with both arms fully removed I don’t feel my body moving at all. I take a few deep breaths and slowly move my arms to my side, then sit up straight.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“See it isn’t that bad. Just your legs are enough to keep you in place.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod slowly, not quite convinced that it’ll hold for too long.</p><p>Before long we reach about a mile (~1600m) in height and Scáthán enters a steady glide again.</p><p>I carefully lean to the side and peak down at the ocean once more and see that it has basically turned into a smooth blue sheet. <em>“This isn’t so bad. Are we past the point where my mind can comprehend the difference in altitude?” </em>I force myself to breathe slowly and steadily. <em>“It was a good choice to go up further. Now he’ll have plenty of time to catch me if I fall.” </em>Still, I decide to give myself some time to get used to the current height.</p><p>Luckily it doesn’t take nearly as long as it did before.</p><p><em>“I think we can start the actually scary part of this exercise now.” </em>I say to him, uncertainty tainting my voice. <strong><em>“Are you sure? You don’t need to rush yourself.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Not quite.” </em>I take a deep breath and audibly swallow. <em>“But the anticipation will only make it worse.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Okay, you might want to hold on now. Not that it’s necessary but it’ll help putting your mind at ease.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Put my mind at ease… Good joke.” </em>I tightly wrap my arms around his neck to the point where I worry that I might be choking him. <strong><em>“Don’t worry about me, you won’t able to choke me.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod and take another deep breath. <em>“Let’s go then.” </em></p><p>As soon as I finish that thought Scáthán leans into a tight right curve, the wind and inertia try to pull me off, but I manage to hold on. Only a few seconds later he enters a glide again.</p><p><em>“This wasn’t that bad actually.” </em>I think to myself. <em>“Can we go again?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Sure thing.” </em></strong>He sounds almost surprised.</p><p>He throws himself into another tight curve.</p><p>Once again inertia and the wind pull on my clothes, trying to rip me off his back but I prevail.</p><p><em>“See, there’s no reason to be afraid.” </em>I tell myself and relax my grip on his neck.</p><p><strong><em>“Not that bad now, is it?” </em></strong>Scáthán seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit.</p><p><em>“Not yet.” </em>I answer sarcastically.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Trust me, you’ll see that your worries are entirely unfounded.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p><em>“It’s not that I don’t trust you. I’m just generally not looking forward to experiencing freefall without a parachute. I remember us doing this before and unexpectedly being thrown off your back is one of the less fond memories I have of that day.” </em>I frown as I remember how it felt to tumble through the air, entirely at the mercy of gravity and Scáthán catching me.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I won’t let you fall that long this time. Or I could use magic stop your fall early.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I honestly don’t know if that changes anything. Let’s just mess around for now. If I fall, I fall. You’ll catch me and that’s it. That other stuff is in the past.” </em>I shake my head to get rid of those memories and focus on the ocean below. <em>“I think there’s nothing to be done about me being scared right now. The only thing that could help is if I learn that I’m actually safe. And that can only happen through experiences, not words.” </em></p><p>I can sense that Scáthán doesn’t like what I said but agrees. He isn’t happy with how the last time he tried to help me get past my fear of flying went.</p><p>After a moment of silence, he enters another tight right curve, so tight in fact he nearly loses lift and ends up dropping a bunch before stabilizing. Even though he was pushing the limits of physics I still remained firmly seated on his back. I could feel the intense pull, trying to rip me off him but still I could hold on. <em>“See, he’d be falling out of the sky before I slip off.” </em>I tell myself as he flies back up about a mile.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“How about we go for a loop next? If you stay put during that you’ll always stay put.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I think about it for a moment. <em>“Screw it. Let’s go.” </em></p><p>Right away he speeds up rapidly then suddenly tilts his whole body upwards. I’m pressed into his back so strongly I can barely stay straight, not that I want to. Somehow, I manage to lie flat against his back and hold onto his neck for dear life. My vision turns blurry as my heart struggles to keep blood flowing against the G-forces.</p><p>As he approaches the apex of the loop, he slows down greatly, and I get to breathe for just a moment as we hang in the air upside down. Just as soon as those blissful moments of weightlessness began, they end again. I’m pressed into his scales again and I feel like blacking out once more.</p><p>Luckily, he notices me struggling and doesn’t enter a glide straight away. Instead he keeps dropping down for a bit longer to make the tail end of the loop less harsh on me.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you okay back there?” </em></strong>He asks once things calmed down.</p><p><em>“I-I think so?” </em>I murmur and push myself upright again. <em>“My head feels weird.” </em></p><p>I squint and rub my temples. <em>“But I’ll be fine.” </em></p><p>A few moments of silence follow. <em>“That actually kind of felt cool…Scary but also cool. There’s something about </em><em>the intense weight I felt that was enjoyable.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“And you never got close to slipping off.” </em></strong>Scáthán adds, sounding rather happy.</p><p><em>“And that.” </em>I reply and sigh. <em>“But I wonder what would have happened if I blacked out.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No matter what you would have woken up on my back.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I’ll have to trust you on that one.” </em>I smile and rub the scales of his neck. <em>“How ab</em><em>out we go again?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Sure thing.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>He gives me a few seconds to brace myself for the next loop, then speeds up rapidly again, angles himself upwards hard and before I know it, I’m hanging upside down again. I peek over my shoulder to see nothing between me and the ocean. A gasp escapes me, and I quickly stare at dads scales again. Moments later I feel myself get pressed into his scales again. <em>“Good that that’s over.” </em>I think to myself and take a few deep breaths. <em>“</em><em>It also felt like my heart was dealing with it better.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You’re indeed handling it pretty well. How about we go for a few nose dives as a final test? They’ll be less extreme than loops, but it’ll probably be pretty scary watching us be in freefall essentially. Oh, and I’ll need to go way higher for those.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Oh god, I don’t like the sound of it but fuck it. Let’s go.” </em>I reply without letting myself think about it too much.</p><p>I can sense him grinning in anticipation of my reaction. <em>“Now watch me regret what I just said.” </em></p><p>He starts rapidly climbing further into the sky. <strong><em>“If </em></strong><strong><em>you regret it just say something and we can do something else.” </em></strong>He says to me while I watch the ocean shrink even more.</p><p><em>“No. I want to do it. Even if I have second thoughts about the whole thing.” </em>I turn my attention to the sky above us. <em>“Just how high do you plan on going?” </em>I ask with a slightly shaky voice.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Three miles(~4800m) and change, then dive down to three hundred feet(~100m). If I ever notice you getting too scared or otherwise feeling unwell, I’ll abort and enter a steady glide.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod and look at the ocean for just a moment before staring at the clouds again. <em>“That’s reassuring. And you said nosedives are less extreme for my body so this should be safer.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I promise I’m doing my best to make this a safe experience for you.” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me as the clouds draw ever closer. <em>“I wonder if we’ll be above or below them…” </em>I think to myself, trying to distract myself.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We’ll be just above them, I recommend you shield your eyes while we fly through them. During this time of the year it’s likely that they’ll carry tiny ice crystals and whatnot in them.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I answer with a quick nod and the two of us fall silent for a while.</p><p>Once I can see the air around us getting foggy, I shut my eyes and keep my chin on my chest. We’re now in the transition layer into the clouds.</p><p>Turns out I was just in time, just seconds after I shut my eyes, I feel tiny bits of hail scrape against my skin and catch in my hair. The temperature drops rapidly, and goose bumps appear on my arms.</p><p><em>“Oh god, I hope this won’t keep going for too long.” </em>My cheeks feel like they’re burning from getting assaulted by sharp tiny bits of ice.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Hold tight,</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em> it’ll only be a little bit more.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Even though it’s only a quarter minute before the assault of ice stops, it feels like an eternity. I carefully raise my head, keeping my eyes shut for now. Just to make sure we’re also out of the transition zone.</p><p>After a bit I dare cracking my eyelids open just a tiny bit. For a moment I’m blinded by how bright it is above the clouds. But once my eyes get used to the light I’m presented with a rather nice view.</p><p>Above us the sky is the perfect azure blue you’d see on a good summer day, below us extends the spotty cover of clouds, the top side looking a little like bleached cotton candy. <em>“Woah.” </em>Though I’ve been above the clouds a few times now they don’t fail to amaze me still. <em>“Why do they look prettier from above?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You haven’t some to associate their top side with bad weather and other negative things, that’s at least part of the reason.” </em></strong> Scáthán glides in circles a couple hundred feet (200m) above the clouds to let me take in the view.</p><p><strong><em>“Now hold tight, we’re about to go down.” </em></strong>He warns me.</p><p>I nod absently minded, too busy looking around.</p><p>I’m suddenly snapped back into reality when I notice that Scáthán is slowing down and that I don’t hear the air flowing around his wings anymore. I turn my head forward just in time to watch him tilt forward and start dropping like a rock. My eyes widen and I hastily cling to his neck as we rapidly gain speed. <em>“Ah fuck.” </em>I curse and hide my face as best I can. The air whips past me, pulling on me with thousands of invisible hands. Soon those hands are joined by the all too familiar feeling of hail hitting my skin. Fortunately, this time we get through the clouds much, much faster than before.</p><p>Still the few seconds we spend inside the cloud feel much too long. Once we drop out the bottom of them it doesn’t get much better. The moment I open my eyes I reminded of just how far above the ground we are. And we’re speeding up still.</p><p><em>“Oh no…” </em>I think to myself as I stare at the ocean. Right now, it doesn’t look like we’re moving towards it too quickly, but I can feel that we’re going way over hundred miles an hour (&gt;&gt;160km/h) at least. Even if I wanted to, I can’t keep my eyes open and look forward at the same time. The wind is blowing too strongly to let me see clear.</p><p>I cover my face again. <em>“Might be for the best. Now I </em><em>can’t see what’s coming.” </em>I simply focus on maintaining my grip and not letting the wind catch under me. At this point, if it did, it’d throw me off for sure. <em>“Are ever going to stop accelerating?” </em>I wonder as it feels like we keep getting faster and faster. <em>“I hope he k</em><em>nows what he’s doing.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It’ll be over soon. You’re doing great back there.” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me in a soothing voice, though I can sense some tenseness coming from him.</p><p><em>“I can’t tell honestly.” </em>I grimace as a gust of wind hits us and lifts my torso up by an inch or two (2,5-5cm).</p><p>Suddenly I hear Scáthán spread his wings wide. I’m pressed into his scales like never before. I grit my teeth and inhale sharply as I try to not black out. A low growl emanates from his chest as the wind catches in them, nearly tearing them off by the sound of it. I inhale sharply, I can’t feel the pain he feels but it must hurt quite a lot.</p><p>Even though we’re just gliding now, we’re still going at an absolutely breakneck speed for quite a while. Eventually though, we’ve lost enough speed to drag that I can finally dare raise my head and open my eyes again. I’m shocked to see just how far low we’re flying. I had gotten so used to seeing the ocean a smooth blue sheet that seeing actual waves comes as a surprise.</p><p>Except, unlike before they’re not slowly passing by but now, they’re quite literally flying by.</p><p><em>“Just how fast are we going?” </em>I ask him.</p><p><strong><em>“I have no idea.</em></strong><strong><em> Fast, very fast.</em></strong><strong><em> That’s for sure.</em></strong><strong><em>” </em></strong>He answers, trying to sound coy.</p><p><em>“Very funny.” </em>I growl back, still rather afraid that a rogue gust of air hitting us at the wrong time.</p><p>Luckily our momentum soon runs out and Scáthán keeps gliding at a manageable speed.</p><p><em>“Let’s not do that again. Not today at least.” </em>I exhale deeply rapidly blink a few times, glad that things turned out well.</p><p><strong><em>“I can’t do th</em></strong><strong><em>is too often anyway. Not without i</em></strong><strong><em>nvolving magic at least. Flying up to those altitudes in this weather is not easy an</em></strong><strong><em>d if I do it too </em></strong><strong><em>often,</em></strong><strong><em> I risk muscle tears.” </em></strong>He slows down even more, slowly gliding towards the ocean’s surface.</p><p><em>“I could hear your wings disagreeing with what you did to them.” </em>I lean against his neck to relax for a moment. My arms dangle down the sides, all the clinging to him is starting to get to me.</p><p>He grumbles affirmatively. <strong><em>“There’s just one more thing we can </em></strong><strong><em>do. </em></strong><strong><em>The leap of faith.” </em></strong></p><p>My first reaction is a determined no but then I remind myself that the last time we did that it only got scary because he wanted to test me and waited as long as he could before catching me. And this time I’ve got a spell to keep my safe.</p><p><em>“Give me a bit of</em><em> time to recover. My arms are sore and shaky</em><em>. Now that the adrenalin has worn </em><em>off,</em><em> I’m feeling pretty tired too.” </em>I pause briefly. <em>“Then I’ll let you know if I feel up for it.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“T</em></strong><strong><em>ake your time. I’m ready when you are.” </em></strong>Scáthán slows down enough to gracefully skid across the water’s surface for a bit before finally coming to a full stop.</p><p> </p><p>We bob along the waves for quite a while as I enjoy the quiet peace. As I lie on my fathers back, watching waves roll by, I come to realize how cold I had gotten. Previously I hadn’t noticed because the constant fear and adrenalin surge kept me preoccupied. But now that I finally get some time to rest, I feel how cold my feet and legs had gotten, how stiff my back feels as the panic sweat drains it of any warmth and how my arms are covered in goose bumps. <em>“</em><em>So much about keeping me </em><em>w</em><em>arm so I don’t catch anything huh.” </em></p><p>I sit up, pull my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around my legs in hopes of keeping what little body heat I have left. <strong><em>“Oh no,</em></strong><strong><em> let me take care of that</em></strong><strong><em>.”</em></strong> Scáthán turns his head around, his eyes already glowing visibly. Almost immediately I feel my body warm up significantly.</p><p>A shudder of comfort runs down my spine and I sigh a sigh of relief as I feel the warmth spread deeper into my body. <em>“Thank you. Hopefully this came early </em><em>enough, and I haven’t caught pneumonia yet.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“If you do fall sick, I’ll make sure to heal you immediately.” </em></strong>He frowns as the glow in his eye’s fades, though the warmth persists for a little bit. <strong><em>“I should have taken care of that way earlier.” </em></strong></p><p>I smile and shake my head. <em>“It’s alright, we were both distr</em><em>acted.” </em></p><p>As the warmth fades, I soon start to notice the chilly wind again. <em>“Tell you what. Let’s get this over with.” </em>I nestle against his neck, that way I should lose less heat to my surroundings.</p><p><strong><em>“To the skies.”</em></strong> He exclaims and swiftly lifts himself out of the water. In no time we’re back three hundred feet (~100m) above the ocean again and keep climbing.</p><p><em>“How high are we going this time?” </em>I ask him while watching the ocean shrink away once more.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“A mile (1600m) high, that’ll be more than enough for you to jump safely.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>A chill runs down my spine at the sheer thought of jumping but I tell myself that there’s nothing to be scared off.</p><p>We reach the mile mark way too early for my taste. <strong><em>“Now is the time Arya. Whenever you feel ready.” </em></strong>I reply with a nod and frown. <em>“Alright Arya. Focus.” </em>I think to myself as I cautiously stand up on his back, leaning into the wind.</p><p><em>“Don’t look down.” </em>I force myself to keep my head straight while spreading my arms to keep balance.</p><p>My knees feel weak and my heart is trying to break out of my chest. <strong><em>“Just let</em></strong><strong><em> yourself fall. Trust me I’ll catch</em></strong><strong><em> you.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod and close my eyes, take a few deep breaths and slowly shift my weight to the right. I keep my arms firmly shut as my body shifts further and further to the right. For a moment I teeter on the verge of losing my balance but then a single wrong movement sends me over the edge. I feel my feet lose grip on his scales and suddenly I feel weightless. It feels like my heart stops for a moment and my instincts almost take over, telling me to struggle and squirm in a futile attempt to somehow save myself from the mile-long fall.</p><p>But before I can panic too much, I feel something suddenly grabbing me, whisking me aside.</p><p>I cautiously open one eye and notice that I’m staring against black scales again. Confused, I turn my head and try to move but notice that I’m firmly pressed against his scales by his huge paws.</p><p><em>“What happene</em><em>d? Did I black out? It didn’t feel like it…I think.” </em>I figure he somehow caught me and now has me pressed against his chest. Which I can’t say feels bad at all but still the thought of his paws being the only thing keeping me up here feels unsettling.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“As soon as I could I snagged you out of the air with one quick sweep of my paw. Then I held you against my chest and that’s where you are right now.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Thought so… Didn’t even know what was happening to me when you grabbed me. I guess I was expecting a longer fall.” </em>I tilt my head back and see him looking at me. Since both of our heads are upside down it almost looks normal at first.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Shall I put you on my back again then?” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I try to nod but only end up hitting my chin on his chest, much to his amusement.</p><p>He moves his claws such that they can get a good grip on me, then moves me quite a bit further back so that he can grab me with his tail. Then wraps his tail around my waist a few times and lifts me onto his back. <strong><em>“If you want you can jump again. </em></strong><strong><em>This time I won’t catch you quite as early though.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Uh huh.” </em>I answer absently minded. I’m much too standing on his back and keeping my balance to pay attention to what he said.</p><p>Again, I gather all my courage, shut my eyes and slowly lean backwards. This time I don’t allow myself to teeter on the edge and just let myself fall. Again, my heart nearly stops, and I struggle to keep my instincts at bay the moment I feel my feet lose grip. Somehow, I manage to keep the upper hand by focussing every fibre of my mind on one thing and one thing only. That thing being my fathers mind. I can sense it above me, rapidly moving away as I fall. The wind tugs on my clothes harder as I speed up. My hair whips around my face, tickling my nose. He keeps getting farther away.</p><p>
  <em>“Please catch me soon…” </em>
</p><p>As if to answer my please I sense him slowly drawing closer again. Suddenly my fears are much less significant. I know my father is coming to catch me.</p><p>He rapidly approaches me and even though it takes just seconds for him to speed past me, it feels like an eternity. Finally, I sense his mind below me and moments later I feel the comforting touch of his scales. I sigh a sigh of relief and breathe out after having held my breath for the entire fall.</p><p>“Thank you.” I whisper under my breath while I take a moment to recover.</p><p><strong><em>“You’re doing really good Arya. I’m proud of you.” </em></strong>Scáthán replies. <strong><em>“We can keep going if you still got another jump in you.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I think, I do.” </em>I slowly open my eyes and stare at the clouds. Somehow jumping off his back from a mile high didn’t feel so bad anymore. With an exhausted sigh I get up again and stand on his back, staring at the horizon. <em>“Do I dare look down?” </em>I ask myself.</p><p><em>“I do.” </em>I decide and very carefully lean forward just enough to look past his side. Surprisingly my heart doesn’t drop as I stare at the ocean. I don’t feel that scared.</p><p><em>“And off we go.” </em>I tell myself, bend my knees and jump, plummeting face first towards the ocean.</p><p>I try to keep my eyes open as long as I can but the wind in my face makes them tear too much and I end up having to close them. With my eyes closed I return my focus to my fathers’ mind, he’s still far away but appears to be approaching again.</p><p>Once I feel that he’s below me I open my eyes just the tiniest bit, hoping to see him swoop in and catch me. And indeed, I manage to make out a blurry outline to my right that swiftly moves under me, then slows down until I land on his back with a light thud.</p><p>Again, I had held my breath for the entire fall so breathing out feels almost heavenly.</p><p><em>“Okay, one last time.</em><em> Then we go back to land, I don’t think my heart can handle more.” </em>I take a moment to just sit on his back and let my heart calm down. I hadn’t even noticed it beating like crazy.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Alright, mind if </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>we stay at this altitude? It’s still more than half a mile(~800m) to the ocean.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I poke my head over his side and stare down. <em>“I think I’ll be fine. Just catch me quickly please.” </em>I stand up on his back, readying myself to jump again.</p><p><em>“Here goes nothing.” </em>Without looking I throw myself off his back.</p><p>Unlike the last two times, Scáthán doesn’t wait to dive after me. So, I only spend a few seconds falling unlike before.</p><p>The moment I land on his back I crawl up to his neck and wrap my arms around it. <em>“Thank </em><em>you, dad.” </em>I nuzzle my head against his scales and smile. <em>“I don’t think I’ve completely lost my fear of riding on your back just yet but it’s a step towards it.” </em></p><p>I can feel happiness radiating from his mind. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>It’s okay. Things like this okay don’t come easy. I’m glad you even dared to do it at all.” </em></strong>He turns towards what I presume to be the shore and quickly flies towards it. I blush a little and smile awkwardly. <em>“It’s not worth mentioning. I’m just a big old chicken that’s all.” </em>We fly in silence for quite a while. I’m too mentally drained to say much of anything and Scáthán doesn’t feel like saying much either.</p><p><strong><em>“Mind if I go catch us some food once we get back? I’m getting rather hungry.” </em></strong>He eventually breaks the silence.</p><p><em>“Sure thing. I could figure out something for getting me some salt in the meantime.” </em>I reply. I could probably start thinking about it now, but I can’t be bothered.</p><p>Eventually, after some fifteen minutes of flying I notice that the shoreline had come into view, it’ll only be a bit longer before we’ll be back. <em>“Sure, hope he remembers where I left my stuff. I couldn’t find it anymore…” </em></p><p>Suddenly I see an image of a group of rocks flash before my inner eye. <em>“Seems he does remember. I wish I had their me</em><em>mory…How can they not ever forget anything that happens?” </em>I shake my head and sigh. <em>“Better be careful and not say or do stupid shit around them lest I’ll be hearing about it for the rest of my life.” </em></p><p>Not much later I hear Scáthán pull in his wings a little and slowly drop in altitude, then a minute or so later he lands just behind the rocky shore. He pokes me with his tail, trying to get me to sit up and make it easier for him to put me down but I refuse to move. He harrumphs, probably trying to say: “fine then, be like that.” As he wraps his tail around my waist and lifts me off his back like a sack of potatoes and unceremoniously drops me on the ground.</p><p>I lie in the dirt for a moment, taking in the feeling of finally having solid ground under me again. “I’m finally back.” I whisper under my breath.</p><p>Scáthán grins and shakes his head. <strong><em>“You silly girl.” </em></strong>He nudges me with his snout. <strong><em>“Get up, I’m hungry.” </em></strong></p><p>I give him a suspicious side-eye and clear my throat. <em>“Excuse me what? How does me getting up relate to you being hungry?” </em>I quickly sit up and stare at him with a deadpan expression. <em>“Need I be afraid?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“No, no, no. I didn’t mean it like that.” </em></strong>He keeps grinning. <strong><em>“I won’t leave before you got your stuff back. Just in case you’re too exhausted to move those rocks.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I see.” </em>I reply as I slowly get up and very slowly walk towards the rocks at the shore. <em>“I still think that was a slip of your…tongue…mind? What would I even call it?”</em> I look over my shoulder to make sure he’s not up to something.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey, don’t be like that.” </em></strong>He follows me, intentionally leaving some distance between us. <em>“I’ll have to believe you then.” </em>I grin and laugh a little.</p><p><em>“Anyway…” </em>I look around for the two rocks I jammed my stuff in between.</p><p><em>“There we are.” </em>I spot a hint of my backpack from afar. With a few quick steps I run over to the pair of rucks and wedge myself against them. I try and try and try to get them to move but my muscles are too weak. <strong><em>“May I lend a paw or tail?” </em></strong>Scáthán asks from behind me.</p><p><em>“Hmph, okay.” </em>I grumble and step back. He gets a few of his claws under one of the rocks and with little efforts lifts it up and drops a few feet away. The ground shakes a little as the rock slams into the ground and breaks in two.</p><p>I quickly grab my backpack from under the other rock before it falls over and throw on my jacket. <em>“Much better.” </em>I sit on a nearby rock and dry my feet as best I can. Then put my shoes back on.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t hurt yourself and stay safe okay? I’ll be gone about half an hour.” </em></strong>Scáthán readies himself to take off.</p><p><em>“I’ll do my best.” </em>I answer with a smile and watch him closely.</p><p>With one swift leap he catapults himself into the air and spreads his wings, casting a gigantic shadow onto me. I watch a little longer as he flies towards the horizon and disappears not long after.</p><p><em>“What a day…” </em>I think to myself as I relive some of the jumps from earlier. <em>“I had thought of maybe skydiving at some point in my life but never like this. Not in my wildest dreams.” </em></p><p>I shake my head. <em>“But if </em><em>anything, this is proof that I can trust him. He didn’t even pull any shenanigans today like he usually would. I guess he can control himself if he has to. And he truly was sorry for how it went last time.” </em></p><p>With a sigh I turn away from the ocean and turn my attention towards the ground. <em>“Maybe we’ll be doing this again </em><em>sometime soon. I’m actually kind of looking forward to it.” </em></p><p>I clear my throat and thoughts. <em>“No matter, what was I going to do now? Ah right, figure out a way to get some salt.” </em>I slowly turn and survey what I have at my disposal. <em>“Rocks, sand, grass, an ocean full of water and that’s it.” </em>I press my lips together and furrow my eyebrows. <em>“</em><em>Certainly, less than optimal but I’ll make do somehow.” </em>After a while of thinking hard about what I could and couldn’t do I realize that I haven’t answered the most basic question yet. <em>“How much water do I even need? What’s the salt content of the ocean?” </em>I try to remember what I had read about the earth’s oceans and their ecosystem. <em>“Two or three percent salt by weight if memory serves me right. How would I want? About a pound</em><em>? Should last me for a long, long time.” </em>I mumble to myself as I try to do the mental calculations and draw random shapes in the air with my fingers.</p><p><em>“Makes 20000grams or 20kgs or roughly 44 pounds.” </em>I pause for a moment to do a quick sanity check of my math. <em>“Wouldn’t want to end up with ten times more or less than I</em><em> aimed for.” </em></p><p>Eventually I nod to myself and smile. <em>“Nope, 44 pounds it is. That’s surprisingly little to be honest. Though how do I contain that water so th</em><em>at dad can evaporate it? Need to filter it before that too wouldn’t want sand in my food.” </em>I glance at the ocean and notice that the water actually looks pretty clean, unlike the murky green or brown I’ve seen before. <em>“Would I still need to remove debris from this?” </em>I get a little closer and watch the water for a while. <em>“I mean it’s </em><em>pretty clear, but the waves still kick up some sand and I’m sure there’s plenty of tiny stuff floating about that I simply can’t see. Good thing I got the old shirt, the fabric of it should do.” </em></p><p>As I try to get off the rock I’m standing on, I notice a bigger one to my left with a huge puddle on top of it. <em>“Would you look at that.” </em>I hop over to it and dip my hand into the water to check the depth.</p><p><em>“This could work.” </em>I try to sweep the water out to get a better look at its actual size.</p><p><em>“Maybe not quite big enough to do it all in one go but two batches should do. Now how do I get the water in here?” </em>I put my hands together to form something of a cup. <em>“Not quite…” </em>I think to myself.</p><p><em>“Maybe <span>Scáthán</span> can help out with some magic or…” </em>A sudden idea strikes me. <em>“I’m not sure I like the </em><em>idea, but he could easily fit requited volume of water in his mouth and simply let it drip out while I keep my shirt in between to act as a filter. Any organic junk the water picks up in his mouth could then be burned off when we remove the water.” </em></p><p><em>“Well let’s wait and see what he has to day about that.” </em>I climb off the rock and get back to the grass and shrubbery a bit further back.</p><p>My stomach grumbles and I feel a stinging pain in my gut. <em>“I sure hope he doesn’t take too long to return.” </em></p><p>Luckily, I needn’t wait too long before I spot a black blob approaching. <em>“That was quick.</em><em>” </em>In just a few minutes he covers the last few miles between us and lands just a bit behind me, the wind coming from his wings making it feel like a storm suddenly rolled in. I brace myself and cover my face. <em>“Way to make an entrance.” </em>He finally folds his wings to his side and the air settles down again.</p><p>He grins and winks at me. <strong><em>“I see you figured something out to make some salt?” </em></strong>He turns around and lowers his head. <em>“I think I did, not sure if it’ll work.” </em>I notice half of a fish sticking out of his mouth. <em>“Am I correct to assume that that’s my foo</em><em>d?” </em>I ask pointing at it.</p><p><strong><em>“You’r</em></strong><strong><em>e correct. Here catch.” </em></strong>He says right as he bites it in half, leaving me with barely enough time to catch it before the fish falls to the ground. <strong><em>“You’ve got some pretty good reaction time.” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me, sounding actually impressed. <em>“You think so?” </em>I take a quick glance at my breakfast. He simply nods as a reply. <strong><em>“Shall I help you with your breakfast?”</em></strong></p><p><em>“I don’t think I could do much of anything with just this.” </em>I grab the fish with both hands and hold it out for him to cut and gut it. As usual he makes incredibly quick work of it, though this time he leaves the guts on the ground. <em>“Huh? Not hungry?”</em></p><p><strong><em>“Not right now, thank you.” </em></strong>He slowly smacks his lips and lies down.</p><p>I lean a bit to the side to peek at his belly and indeed he does look visibly fatter than normal. <em>“Looks like someone went </em><em>too far again?” </em>He grumbles a bit annoyed. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Thanks, <span>Skaftá</span>, I wouldn’t have known myself.” </em></strong>He bares his teeth at me for a split second. <strong><em>“Though honestly it’s not that bad.” </em></strong></p><p>Instinctively I jump back and already feel panic rise in me. <em>“I didn’t just anger him, did I?” </em>I unintentionally whimper quietly. Scátháns head immediately darts up, only making me more afraid. <strong><em>“Sorry Arya, I didn’t mean to scare you. I wasn’</em></strong><strong><em>t actually angry, just pretending to be.” </em></strong>I sense that he’s sincerely sorry.</p><p>After taking a moment to calm myself and gather my thoughts I answer. <em>“It’s okay. I just got spooked and instincts took over. There’s something about you baring your tee</em><em>th at me that sets something off deep inside me. You being a hundred times my size doesn’t help either.” </em></p><p>I look up at him and smile. <em>“I’ll get used to </em><em>it, or rather learn, to suppress my instincts. Seems to be a common thread, isn’t it? I know I’m fine, but my instincts tell me I’m not.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We all still need to get used to each other. You’re doing really well already. I still have a lot to work on though.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“We all have a lot of work to do. You’re also doing much better than at first. Remember how our first erm meeting went?” </em>Scáthán averts his eyes for a second. <strong><em>“Yeah, I remember.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“So, where we are now is very much an improvement right?” </em>He smiles too and nods. <strong><em>“If you say so. Though I doubt it </em></strong><strong><em>could have gotten much worse.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“Shush.” </em>I grin and wink at him. <em>“Now if you could help me cook my food so that I can finally eat I’d very much appreciate it.” </em></p><p>Without another word, Scátháns eye begin to glow, I can suddenly smell cooked fish and can watch the fish change colour before my eyes.</p><p><em>“Much appreciated.” </em>I quickly chow down on the fish, only to nearly burn my mouth on it.</p><p><em>“Guess even dragons can’t cook cold food.” </em>I laugh to myself and sit between my father’s front paws. After some waiting, I carefully take another nibble and much to my surprise the fish has cooled down enough to be edible. I can barely hold myself back from devouring the whole thing in one go and even though I try my hardest, I still end up overeating a lot. <strong><em>“Looks like someone went too far again?” </em></strong> Scáthán says teasingly.</p><p>I reply by raising my upper lip a little and grumbling quietly. <em>“Very funny.” </em>I lean back to ease the pain a little. <em>“I say we rest a bit before doing anything else.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I agree, that’s a good plan.” </em></strong>He rests his head in front of me and shuts his eyes.</p><p><em>“Alright, time for a nap. Wake me up when it’s time to get going again.” </em>I get comfy as well and slowly shut my eyes.</p><p> </p><p>I don’t get to nap for too long however. After a mere half an hour I’m awoken by him gently brushing a claw against my cheek. <strong><em>“Time to wake up sleepyhead.” </em></strong>He softly says to me as he lifts his head, leaving me to almost fall over backwards.</p><p>I scramble to keep my balance and am immediately wide awake. <em>“Damn it, nex</em><em>t time give me some form of a warning please.” </em>I grumble and rub my eyes. <strong><em>“We got no time for warnings</em></strong><strong><em>.</em></strong> <strong><em>W</em></strong><strong><em>e’ve got things to do.”</em></strong> He replies, trying to put as much excitement into his voice as he can.</p><p><em>“Get salt and what else exactly? Why the sudden rush?” </em>I slowly get up and stretch. <em>“You aren’t usually one to rush.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“There’s no rushing, I just l</em></strong><strong><em>ike the way you reacted.” </em></strong>He grins and tilts his head a little.</p><p><em>“Very funny.” </em>I reply and glare at him with half shut eyes. I grab the old shirt from my backpack and trot towards the rock. Scáthán stays put and as I climb onto the rock, I ask him:<span><em>” </em></span><em>Are y<span>ou</span> coming or what?” </em>As I turn my head, I hear him leap towards me and a second later the sun disappears as he jumps over me and lands in the water a few feet away. I manage to drop off the rock and duck just in time for the wave he created to crash into the rocky shore and splash water everywhere. I groan as I wipe the water droplets off my arms and face before climbing back up. <em>“Big thanks.” </em>I sneer at him, wishing I had some way to retaliate. But I already know no matter what I do it’ll just come back to bite me ten times over.</p><p><strong><em>“No problem.” </em></strong>He replies cheerily.   </p><p>At that moment I decide to give up, I can’t win in this situation and it’s best if I just treat him like a smaller brother trying to get on my nerves. The only way to win in those moments is to ignore them.</p><p>I can sense that Scáthán doesn’t like being compared to a petulant five-year-old but he too sees that by talking back he’d just make it worse for himself.</p><p><em>“Anyway, I assume you already know what I had on mind?” </em>I fiddle with the ripped shirt, trying to find the biggest bit of intact fabric.</p><p><strong><em>“I do indeed.” </em></strong>He replies and watches me mess around. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Let’s try and see how it goes, I have no better ideas that don’t involve more magic than yours.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Alright, I’m ready then.” </em>I finally found an intact patch. <em>“Oh</em><em>, one more thing, can you quickly burn the algae and stuff before we start?”</em></p><p><strong><em>“Sure, step back for a moment.” </em></strong>He says to me as he brings his head closer.</p><p>I quickly hop onto a nearby rock, making sure to aim for one that isn’t covered in algae to avoid slipping. Scáthán blows a thin beam of fire through his lips and quickly scorches the hole. The sounds of fire are accompanied by some aggressive pops and hisses as the remaining water suddenly evaporates. Once he’s done there’s little more left than a blackened, steaming crater.</p><p>
  <em>“That was kind of counterproductive actually… I really wouldn’t want carbon in my salt, though I guess it also doesn’t really harm me.”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“If you wait a little, you’ll be able to just wipe the soot away with your hands. Just don’t do it right now, you’ll only burn your hands.” </em>
  </strong>
  
</p><p>I nod and stay put for now, the entire top of the rock is probably very hot still, stepping on it in general feels like a bad plan.</p><p>Fortunately, the occasional bigger waves splash some water onto the boulder, making it easy to see how hot it still is.</p><p><em>“This should be fine now.” </em>I think to myself a few minutes later and hop back over. I can still feat some warmth radiating off it but nothing that I couldn’t handle.</p><p>I rip a piece off the shirt and use it to clean out the hole, as Scáthán said, the char comes off easily, leaving me with a deep black piece of fabric. <em>“Very nice. On to step two then.” </em></p><p>I grab the rest of the shirt and stretch it between my hands, holding it over the hole. Scáthán dips the tip of his snout into the ocean and quickly sucks a bunch of water into his mouth, then moves his head to be right above the hole and lets a finger thick stream of water run out from between his lips.</p><p>The water runs right through my shirt and splashes as it hits the rock. Before long the hole is full to the brim and he spits the leftover water back into the ocean. I check to see what got caught and see the odd grain of sand and some other unidentifiable junk. <em>“I knew it’d be a good idea.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>I just came to realize we might have a problem n</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>ow. I don’t think I can ev</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>aporate the water safely with just fire. The flame doesn’t burn c</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>lean enough most of the time and if even a small droplet of liquid hits the water it’ll explode rather violently. Can’t mix in oxidizer either because </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>it’ll leave yo</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>u with inedible salt.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Why would the salt be inedible? Would the oxidizer leave behind some toxic compounds?</em>
  <em>”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, it’ll probably react with the rock and carbon to form al</em></strong><strong><em>l kinds of nasty chemicals that’ll probably give you cancer if they don’t kill </em></strong><strong><em>you outright.” </em></strong>I press my lips together. “Hmmmm.”</p><p>
  <em>“</em>
  <em>So,</em>
  <em> you’re saying you have to use magic for this?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>Unless you want to wait a few weeks for the water to evaporate, yes.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Alright, should I get away anyway? I imagine it’ll still spit a bit if it gets </em>
  <em>close to </em>
  <em>dryness.”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“That would be a good plan indeed. This way I can also easily burn off any </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>organic impurities.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I don’t let him tell me that twice and hop over to another rock again. His eyes being glowing pretty brightly, I can even see some reflections off his scales for once.</p><p>Seconds later, the first bubbles appear at the bottom of the puddle as it begins boil.</p><p>The boiling becomes rather violent, scathing hot water splashing all around and leaving small salt stains everywhere.</p><p>Even with Scáthán dumping incredible amounts of energy into the water, it still takes quite a while before it’s all gone, reduced to a layer of salt.</p><p>He doesn’t abort the spell yet, instead he keeps heating the salt and it starts giving off steam again, though this time it isn’t water. Moments later I notice the air above it shimmering due to the intense heat and the slat takes on a very dim, dull red glow. Some bubbles start appearing in the salt as the grains start to sinter together, trapping gasses beneath them.</p><p>Suddenly a bubble near the middle explodes, flinging glowing blobs of salt into the air.</p><p><em>“Looks like it hit some water somewhere under it.” </em>This happens a few more times and each time I’m glad I’m not standing near it.</p><p>Eventually Scáthán stops the flow of energy and the salt stops glowing almost immediately as it rapidly cools. <strong><em>“That settles the first batch.” </em></strong>He says, poking at the salt with his claws.</p><p><em>“I just realized I didn’t think about making a container…” </em>I rack my brain for a quick solution.</p><p><strong><em>“That won’t be a problem.” </em></strong>His eyes suddenly begin to glow again, just as bright as before.</p><p>A sharp bang sounds from a nearby bolder as it splits, a small cloud of dust rising from it. <strong><em>“That’ll settle it.” </em></strong>I climb over onto the boulder that just exploded and notice two rings in its surface.</p><p>With some effort I can get my fingers in there and pull whatever this is out. <em>“I have a hunch.” </em></p><p>It’s an almost perfectly cylindrical piece of rock with a surprisingly smooth surface. <em>“And if I hold it upside down the middle will fall out.” </em>I flip it over and indeed. The middle piece comes slowly sliding out.</p><p><strong><em>“I couldn’t make a good lid out of rock so I figure you need to stuff your shirt into the top hole for now until we can make a wood stopper.” </em></strong>I nod and climb to the puddle of salt that’s mostly cooled down by now.</p><p>I carefully poke at it with one finger to make sure I won’t get burned, then I quickly scoop the salt into the container and once I’m done put it aside.</p><p>I grab the soggy piece of fabric again and hold it over the hole once more. <em>“Ready for round two.” </em></p><p>Scáthán picks up some more water from the ocean and just a minute later the hole is full once more.</p><p>Again, he uses magic to evaporate the water and I watch closely from afar.</p><p>Some fifteen minutes later I’ve got my salt and stuff the still dry leftovers of my shirt into the top to keep the salt in.</p><p><em>“So, what’s next? We go meet up with the others?” </em>I ask while stuffing my things back into my backpack. <strong><em>“Before we do </em></strong><strong><em>that, I think we’ll grab you some iron to make some useable tools.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“Ooooooh, good idea.” </em>I look around quickly. <em>“But from where? The traditional way of making iron won’t work here. Don’t think we have either clay or coal around. I gue</em><em>ss we could make the coal ourselves at least.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You’re overcomplicating it.” </em></strong>He replies with a grin. <strong><em>“Why reduce iron ore when someone already did the work for you </em></strong><strong><em>ages ago.” </em></strong>He climbs onto the rocks and heads deeper inland.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>“Just come with me and watch.”  </em></strong>Turns out that wasn’t a request but a command as he swiftly picks me up with his tail and drops me onto his back. <em>“Just what are you thinking of?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You’ll see.” </em></strong>Is his only reply as he very quickly walks through the grass and shrubbery.</p><p>He keeps walking for quite a while before he suddenly stops and puts me back to the ground.</p><p>I’m still quite confused as to what his plan is but don’t say anything. He looks around a bit his eyes glowing dimly and his head close to the ground. Then he suddenly stops and digs his claws into the ground, ripping the grass and shrubs out and throwing them aside. I want to get closer to see what he’s doing but seeing how much force he puts into digging I’d rather stay further away than risk the ground giving way and sending me into the hole or accidentally getting buried by him.</p><p>He quickly digs deep into the ground, in a matter of minutes he’s up to his knees and a bit later he stops briefly to grab on to something and pulls it out of the hole.</p><p>It’s difficult to discern what exactly he dug up there as it’s a crumpled-up ball of dirt and metal. <em>“Is that…a car?” </em>I ask, getting closer to get a better look.</p><p><strong><em>“That’s what it’s called I’m pretty sure.” </em></strong>He clears some of the mud off it with his claws.</p><p>I shake my head and laugh quietly. <em>“You just dug up a whole car from some few hundred years ago?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“That’s exactly what I did.” </em></strong>He grins widely. <strong><em>“As I said, why do the work of making iron from ore when someone already did the work for you.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t turned into a pile of rust yet. Didn’t think anything metal could survive in the ground for hundreds of years.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Turns out some things engineered by humans in 21<sup>st</sup> century could actually last.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“But how did you find this? How did you know where to dig?” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Magic.” </em></strong>He grins widely. <strong><em>“Well and some help from my horns.” </em></strong></p><p>I look up at his head, I had noticed them before but never thought to ask about them. I just thought they were some kind of fighting implement like their claws and teeth. But looking at it now, the angle they sit at isn’t conducive to using them as a weapon. <em>“What’s the deal with them then?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We can use them to sense magnetic fields and some more things. I used some magic to generate one around my head and then could sense changes in it with my horns. The car, containing plenty of metals, caused a change I could sense so I knew where I had to dig.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I tilt my head a little and look at him with wary eyes. <em>“Your kind is fu</em><em>ll of wonders, but I guess it’s not too weird, we already have animals that do that here on earth. Not to that extent though.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Why so distrustful? Why would I lie about something like that?” </em></strong>He tilts his head a little, apparently surprised by my scepticism. <em>“</em><em>Oh, it’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just another thing on the long list of things that sound so out there they could be straight from a fairy tale. Then again, your kind has caused their fair share of them so why am I surprised.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“We sure did.” </em></strong>He appears quite bemused by my reaction. <strong><em>“Anyway, n</em></strong><strong><em>ow I need your help to figure out which parts of this could make good tool material. If there’s none I can dig around some more, I think I hit a house or similar as there’s plenty more metal in the ground around here.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“I don’t think that would be necessary, the chassis is made of some kind of steel for sure though it might be too rusty to be useful. The engine is either aluminium or steel too, so chances are good we’ll find at least one useful part on it.” </em>
</p><p>I wipe some of the mud off to take a better look at what my father dug up. The paint surprisingly did a pretty decent job at protecting the metal below. <em>“Even if it’s called stainless</em><em> steel, if you bury it in the ground for nearly a millennium it’ll start rusting eventually.” </em>There are quite a few spots where the metal has begun corroding but it’s much less than expected.</p><p>
  <em>“And I thought we’d be left with a solid lump of rust.” </em>
</p><p>After some searching, I find what used to be the engine and with some help from Scáthán we break it open. It’s filled with dirt and debris and as I poke around it, I notice a large amount of rust. <em>“Figures, engines aren’t made from stainless steel, so this is basically a big lump of junk now.”</em></p><p>I poke around a bit more to find more of the same. <em>“Looks like we’ll be using the chassis then, the engine is a lost cause. Not that we’d need it.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Time to… disassemble this then.” </em></strong>With a crunch he digs his claws into it and the metal crumbles under his paws.</p><p>In matter of minutes he has separated the engine compartment from the rest and reduced what’s left into a pile of scrap.</p><p>I watch in awe as I hadn’t thought he’d be tearing it apart this quickly. <em>“There isn’t a place safe from you on this world, is there.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“If I want to get to you no matter what? Nope, </em></strong><strong><em>no amount of steel, bricks or concrete will stop me.” </em></strong>He grins as he buries the unusable parts.</p><p>I shove my worries aside and instead try to focus on finding a way to re melt the metal.</p><p><strong><em>“I was thinking we build a furnace </em></strong><strong><em>that we can pile the scraps into and then I can blow fire into a hole at the bottom until it all melts.” </em></strong>I see images of a small blast furnace made from dirt flash before my inner eye.</p><p>
  <em>“How would we go about shaping the molten metal into something useful? </em>
  <em>We can’t really cast it since all we have is dirt. Unless you want to use even more magic today.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I’ll have to. Any dirt </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>mould wouldn’t work due to the water in it and even if it did the shapes, we could make are much too basic to be useful.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“That’s what I was thinking too. Thank you </em>
  <em>for sacrificing so much of your energy reserves for me.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Oh, that isn’t an issue, I </em></strong><strong><em>had plenty of food </em></strong><strong><em>today,</em></strong><strong><em> so they’ll replenish quickly. Let’s get going then.” </em></strong>He begins by piling the leftover dirt up.</p><p>
  <em>“Can I help somehow?” </em>
</p><p>Scáthán briefly pauses to think. <strong><em>“You could dig the hole for me to blow fire through once I got finish the walls.” </em></strong>I nod and watch as he quickly builds up about three feet tall, circular, walls.</p><p>Surprisingly the mud is sticky enough to not crumble under its own weight at that height.</p><p>Once he’s done, he draws a thin line in the mud with his claws to mark the spot I’m supposed to make a hole into.</p><p>He made the lower parts of the wall rather thick and compressed them a lot, so it takes me quite a while to dig through them. The hole being wide enough for me to crawl though doesn’t really help either. <em>“There that</em><em>’ll do I think.” </em>I say to him as I finish cleaning up the edges of the hole.</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, good job Arya.” </em></strong>He carefully drops the scrap metal into it from the top, somehow managing to not break the walls in the process. <strong><em>“Please step back, </em></strong><strong><em>there might be toxic f</em></strong><strong><em>umes coming off this depending on how hard it’ll be to melt it.” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me as he drops the last piece into the furnace.</p><p><em>“Are you sure the water in the mud walls won’t give you problems? I’d hate for the thing to blow up halfway through.” </em>I ask him as I put some hundred fifty feet (~50m) between us. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>I’ll take care of that with magic first. You’re right, if I just blew fire into it it’ll probably break.” </em></strong></p><p>Even from back here I see his eyes glowing and steam rise from the furnace.</p><p>After a few minutes the glow from his eyes fades and I see him breathe in deeply. <em>“Oh boy, here we go.” </em>I’m quite excited to see what kind of gigantic column of fire he’ll produce this time.</p><p>Suddenly a huge swathe of bright orange flames bursts from his lips and disappears in the bottom of the furnace. A thirty foot (10m) tall flame shoots out the top and even this far back I can feel the heat of it. <em>“Holy sh</em><em>it.” </em>I think to myself as I watch in awe.</p><p>I notice a grin on Scátháns face and when I pay closer attention to his mind, I can sense that he’s up to something.</p><p>In an instant the flame changes colour from bright orange to a blinding white and the heat gets almost unbearable. I have to avert my eyes as the light is too bright, but I can still hear the sound of the flame change from a steady rushing to an angry hissing with occasional crackle and pop.</p><p>The flame grows so incredibly bright that it nearly outshines the sun and I back away even further as the heat grows more intense.</p><p>Just as suddenly as the flame appeared, it disappears again. I take a moment to realize as my eyes slowly adjust. <em>“Holy shit, what was that.” </em>I carefully peek at the furnace to see that the lower parts are glowing orange and the top third just straight up disappeared. The grass in a wide range around it has turned yellow and right around the base it’s completely burned up.</p><p>My eyes grow wide in shock, I had expected to see something bad but not this bad.</p><p><strong><em>“And this is what happens when I mix oxidizer into the fire.” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me with a wide grin.</p><p><em>“Am I glad that I was this far away.” </em>I think to myself. <em>“I assume the metal has melted into a puddle then?” </em>I carefully approach him again, not quite trusting the silence yet. <strong><em>“Yes, its little more than a white-hot puddle.” </em></strong>He uses magic to raise a roughly spherical ball of glowing, molten iron from the remains of the furnace. It suddenly begins to change shape as it rapidly cools and by the time it’s stopped being malleable it has taken on the form of a pan.</p><p>Scáthán drops it next to the furnace and raises another blob of metal, this one forms into a knife.</p><p>I watch him closely as he repeats the process over and over again, in the end I’m left with a pan, a pot, a lid to go along with it, a metal cup, a plate, a few sets of cutleries, and lastly a couple of metal tins with screw on lids.</p><p>There are a two more things I can’t quite make sense of, five metal rods that seem to go together in some way and a ball of wire. <em>“What are those for?” </em>I ask him, pointing at one of the rods and the ball of wire. <strong><em>“The rods are supposed to </em></strong><strong><em>form a rack to hang your pot from, so you don’t have to put it right into the fire. The wire doesn’t have a purpose yet, but I felt it could come in handy if you ever need to tie something together.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“Oooh, that’s a very good idea. Thank you.” </em>A happy smile spreads across my face.</p><p>I leave them on the ground to cool a little more before picking them up. The pan and pot feel just like I expected and the knifes turned out surprisingly sharp. <em>“Wow, this is really nice.” </em>I play with them for a moment. <em>“I guess I wrap these in my shirt and move the salt to one of the metal containers.” </em>I quickly dump the salt into one of them and loosely tie the remains of the shirt around the knifes before stashing it all in my backpack. <em>“Thank you so much dad.” </em>I hug his snout and rest my head against it. I truly feel happy, as if it were Christmas. Or at least this is how I think Christmas is supposed to feel.</p><p> </p><p>He makes some happy sounds and closes his eyes briefly. <strong><em>“It’s my pleasure to do these</em></strong><strong><em> things for you. </em></strong><strong><em>Truly, </em></strong><strong><em>I’m glad to be the father figure you never had. Your trust is all I could ever want in return.” </em></strong>He opens his eyes again and stares at me, his eyes gazing right into my soul.</p><p><em>“T</em><em>-thank you dad. You’re the best father I could ever hav</em><em>e.” </em>I reply and stare back, my sight losing itself in his eyes.</p><p><em>“I don’t think I could give you more than my trust. It’s all I can offer you.” </em>I avert my eyes to not lose myself too much and let go off his snout. He raises his head a little and tilts it a little while keeping his eyes on me. <strong><em>“There’s no need for more.</em></strong><strong><em>” </em></strong>He smiles widely.</p><p>I smile back, deeply appreciating his words. After a moment, I put on my backpack and look up at him. <em>“</em><em>How about we meet up with the others now? We should be done here.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Just a moment. I’ll need to destroy some evidence.” </em></strong>With a few swift movements, he has flattened our miniature forge and buried it in the ground, leaving only some burnt grass and dug up soil. <strong><em>“There, now we can go</em></strong><strong><em>.” </em></strong>He’s quick to place me on his back and before I know it, he’s already a hundred feet (33m) in the air. I quickly wrap my arms around his neck but after what I went through earlier today it doesn’t feel nearly as scary as it used to. <strong><em>“That’s the spirit.” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me cheerfully. He keeps rising higher for a while, soon the trees below look like mere saplings. Still, I’m not afraid of the height anymore. Even if I suddenly got thrown off his back, he’d catch me before I even realized what happened.</p><p>However, now there’s a new problem. The cold.</p><p>Even with my jacket on, the wind finds its way under it and while I’m not running the risk of hypothermia yet it’s quite uncomfortable and I try to hide behind his neck for a little shelter.</p><p>Though, his neck being basically round, it doesn’t actually block any wind. It just flows around it.</p><p>Fortunately, we don’t take too long to meet up with Skaftá and my siblings. As we approach, I see my three siblings scurry around the air, sometimes chasing after one another, sometimes just messing around. Dorn is the first to notice us approaching and immediately heads our way.</p><p>Before Scáthán can even put me back on the ground after landing, Dorn already lands on his back and embraces me. I hug him back and rub the scales on his back. <strong><em>“Welcome back sister. I’m so proud of you.” </em></strong>I pull my head back and tilt it to the left. <em>“What are you talking about?” </em>I ask him.</p><p><strong><em>“You did the jump, not just once even.” </em></strong>He smiles widely and hugs me tighter. I stutter and sputter for a moment as my mind tries to find form a sentence. <em>“</em><em>Thanks? How do you know already? Were you in on it? I mean I know we got this telepathic connection and you can see my memories, but does it really work that quickly and without me noticing?” </em>I enjoy the tight hug and the warmth of his body.</p><p>He replies with a quick nod. <strong><em>“It does. Well, it also helps that dad told us about his plans beforehand</em></strong><strong><em>, but I didn’t know if you two went through with it. And I’m proud of you. Not that I doubted you. It’s just asking a lot of you.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“It sure was.” </em>I think back to standing on his back, before jumping off the first time. Truly it reminded me of the times I contemplated throwing myself off a bridge. <em>“How did I not notice those similarities before?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Because this time there wasn’t a voice in your head, telling you to do it. You aren’t suicidal anymore. Your will to live is stronger now and it was yelling at you to not do it.” </em></strong>Skaftá had suddenly appeared next to me.</p><p>It’s true, I hadn’t thought about ending my existence in a while. Basically, ever since they adopted me. <strong><em>“Most don’t have the courage to do it with a parachute and someone trained at their side. Yet here you are. Jumping off a dragon’s back at low altitude, without any instructions or safety nets. The only thing to go by were his words.” </em></strong>She smiles widely and gently nudges my head. <strong><em>“I know you still thin</em></strong><strong><em>k you’re average at best, that you’re not worth talking about. But I tell you, you’ve got more courage than most. If it were anyone else in your shoes most wouldn’t have done it.” </em></strong></p><p>I close my eyes and rest my head against my brother. <em>“You’ve </em><em>got a point mom. But also, not everyone knows you the way I do.” </em>My mind refuses to accept her praise. Truly, she must just be saying these things to make me feel good. Still, I appreciate it.</p><p>Surprisingly she doesn’t try more to convince me. <em>“She must have seen my thoughts for sure, right?” </em>I ask myself and peek at her through half closed eyes. Still, there’s no reaction on her part.</p><p><em>“Maybe she knows there’s no convincing me. Not right now at least.” </em>I sigh and smile contently. <em>“They seem to always know what’s best. It’s almost unsettling.” </em></p><p>I fully open my eyes again and raise my head. <em>“</em><em>What have you lot been up to today?” </em>I ask both Skaftá and Dorn. <strong><em>“Nothing special, just the usual hunting, playing and training.” </em></strong>Dorn replies while rapidly sending memories to me, almost too fast to keep up. At first glance the sequence looks almost the same to yesterday, just in a different order. Upon closer inspection however, I notice that there are differences. The forest looks different, they’re hunting different prey and Skaftá taught them about different things. There’s probably more I missed but it doesn’t matter.</p><p><em>“Good to see you had fun too.” </em>I pet his head.</p><p><strong><em>“Very much so.” </em></strong>He pushes his head against my hand.</p><p><strong><em>“I hate to break you two up. But Dorn, you should get back to your siblings, you still got things to learn.” </em></strong>Skaftá interrupts us.</p><p>Dorn replies with a long stare, I can almost hear him saying <em>“But moooooom.” </em>After a moment of hesitation, he let’s go of me and hops off his fathers back, spreading his wings to glide for a moment before flying up into the sky where his brother and sister are currently playing.</p><p><em>“Sooo, what now?” </em>I ask, looking between my parents expectantly.</p><p><strong><em>“You go rest unt</em></strong><strong><em>il it’s time to fetch dinner.” </em></strong>Skaftá says to me and tilts her head 90 degrees to the right. <em>“</em><em>Why do you tilt your head so much?” </em>I try to mimic her and stare at her with inquisitive eyes. She stays silent and stares back.</p><p>I furrow my eyebrows and try to figure out what she wants. Her mind doesn’t give me any hints, it’s surprisingly blank. <em>“Oh…” </em>I realize that she’s wanting to pick me up, not with her tail though.</p><p><em>“Alright.” </em>I brace myself for what’s about to come and take a deep breath.</p><p>She smiles happily and opens her mouth just a little.</p><p>I contemplate if I should just close my eyes, so I don’t have to watch it but decide against it in the end. <em>“Maybe it’s better when I can</em><em> see what’s happening to me.” </em>I feel Skaftás jaws close around my torso. Suddenly, I’m lifted off Scátháns back and her teeth push into my skin a little more.</p><p>I look down myself to see myself firmly in the clasp of her jaws. Fortunately, her lips keep her teeth concealed. Before I get to look at my sides, she has already placed me on the ground and removed her jaws from me. I sigh a sigh of relief and rub the tip of her snout, thankful for her making it quick. Surprisingly she somehow managed to keep me dry throughout this. Well mostly, there are still stains where her teeth touched me but nothing major.</p><p>I look around for a place to sit but before I can make up my mind, I feel her nudge my back, trying to get me to move closer to her. I let her corral me to her front paws which she has folded together such that a dragon’s equivalent of the back of my hands lie against one another. <strong><em>“Have a seat l</em></strong><strong><em>ittle one.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Are you sure this is comfortable for you?” </em>I ask her while eyeing her paws suspiciously.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It is for now, not in the long term though. But it’ll do for now.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I’m still not entirely convinced but decide that I won’t be the one to argue. So, I climb onto her paws and get myself comfortable.</p><p>She smiles happily and rests her head on the ground. I glance over at Scáthán who has also lain down and curled up. Looks like he’s almost dozing off.</p><p><strong><em>“The constant flying up and down took his toll on him. Today’s weather isn’t the best for that kind of acrobatics either. He’ll probably nap for quite a while.” </em></strong>She says to me when she notices me looking.</p><p><em>“I imagine it would. Though I couldn’t tell he was exhausted.”</em> I smile and lean into her scales. <em>“Hopefully he didn’t ov</em><em>erdo it. Wouldn’t want him to be all sore just because of me.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Don’t worry, he won’t be. He wasn’t even all that exhausted. Just burnt through a lot of energy today and needs to rest now.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Isn’t being exhausted and burning a lot of energy the same thing?” </em>I wrinkle my forehead and furrow my eyebrows.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Not exactly. They’re related but not the same. You get exhausted when you reach your bodies limit, but you can still burn a lot of energy without ever quite reaching your limit.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“That does make sense.” </em>I nod slowly.</p><p>I turn my attention towards my siblings who have landed back on the ground and are now busy playing rowdily in the grass. <em>“They have so much energy in them…In the meantime I spend all my time sitting around. It almost feels unfair.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Why do you think so Arya?” </em></strong>She turns her head towards me.</p><p>
  <em>“I see you shooing them around basically all day and then there’s me sitting at the side-lines, getting carried around and getting essentially spoon fed.”</em>
</p><p>She chuckles and grins. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>There you go again comparing yourself to dragons. I only shoo them around so much because it helps them become stronger adults. It’s well known that if a dragon is less active as an adolescent they turn into weaker adults. Now even the weakest dragons can get by fine but still <span>Scáthán</span> and I have decided that we want them to be as strong as they can be. You’re already an adult though so there’s little use in shooing you around all day. The only thing that’ll achieve is putting unnecessary wear on your joints. Besides, I’m not sure you’d enjoy being in their midst all day.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I feel like we had this conversation before…” </em>I sigh. She’s right again.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We did but I don’t mind repeating myself. It’s good that you worry about these things. It shows that you care about others, which already makes you a better person than many. Just know that your worries are unfounded.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Okay.” </em>I peer at my siblings for a second. <em>“If anything </em><em>about me ever bothers any of you please tell me. I’d hate to be a burden.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“We’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies and smiles.</p><p>I return her smile and do my best to push my worries aside.</p><p>Me and mom watch them for a while but eventually I too start getting tired. <strong><em>“Feel free to nap as well. I’ll keep an eye on you.” </em></strong>She brings her head closer, her eyes focussed on me. <strong><em>“And if you’re worried about your siblings pulling shenanigans, I’ll be keeping them at bay too.” </em></strong></p><p>I chuckle and grin. <em>“</em><em>Having you read my mind can come in rather handy.” </em>I lie down across her paws and curl up. It takes me some time but eventually I do doze off.</p><p>I don’t know for how long I slept but by the time I wake up again the sun has moved pretty close to the horizon. I groan and sit up while rubbing my eyes, even though I didn’t do much I feel so knocked out. I look around and see that my siblings are sleeping right next to me, on the ground next to Skaftás paws.</p><p><strong><em>“Welcome back.” </em></strong>She says to me. <strong><em>“You’r</em></strong><strong><em>e the first one to wake up again.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Really?” </em>I reply and look over at dad. He too is still fast asleep.</p><p>At first, I don’t quite believe it but when I try to sense his mind, I notice that it feels rather asleep.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’ll be a while before anyone will wake up so feel free to do whatever.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Seeing how everyone is fast asleep, I decide to stay put and explore my surroundings with my mind.</p><p>Since I just woke up it’s still very easy for me to zone out, but it does make keeping my mind from accidentally touching the ones of my siblings or parents harder.</p><p>Suddenly while I’m trying to direct my mind away from everyone’s mind, I hear Skaftás voice in my head again. <strong><em>“You’re already doing pretty well with controlling where your mind goes. It might be a good time to start training your mental defences.” </em></strong></p><p>Her voice snaps me out of my trance and makes me jump a little. <em>“</em><em>What do you mean?” </em>I ask her while taking deep breath to calm my heart.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“There’s a way to make it impossible for us to look into your mind. Think of it as reforming and fortifying your natural barrier. We can’t make contact with you without breaking it first. We can still choose to attack it and force our way in, but it’ll be a good way of signalling us that you want to be left alone.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I’m immediately intrigued by her offer. <em>“That does sound good. I’d love to have some form of privacy back.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I knew I wouldn’t have to ask twice.” </em></strong>She moves her head to be just a few feet (~1,5m) away from and locks eyes with me. <strong><em>“You’ll need to focus in on something, anything. I suggest starting with a memory though. The better you remember it the better it’ll work.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“And that’s it?” </em>I ask her suspiciously. <strong><em>“And that’s it. For now.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod and try to pick a memory. The most vivid ones that come to mind immediately are the traumatic ones. Past abuse, the earlier days of me living with them and nightmares. I struggle to keep them from resurfacing too hard and try to find a positive one. Suddenly I remember the night of Dorn hatching, it’s etched into my memory much like many of the traumatic ones.</p><p><em>“Alright.” </em>I think to myself and close my eyes. I try my hardest to remember that night, making sure to keep my focus on just it and nothing else.</p><p>Almost immediately I notice the presence of my siblings and father disappearing and Skaftá becomes more of a faint spectre than an actual presence in my head.</p><p>Before my inner eye I can see the egg wiggle as Dorn is about the break free and see the light of day for the first time. It feels as if I’m right there, I can see the dim, magic, light reflecting off the egg. I can sense my parent’s presence to my left and right while we all watch the egg with great anticipation.</p><p>My mind has fallen completely silent, only this one memory filling every last corner of it.</p><p>The shell of the egg bulges and cracks and suddenly a piece falls out and I can see his tiny eye staring at me. A cold shiver runs down my back as he stares at me and we both freeze for a moment.</p><p>I can feel his mind brush against mine and watch as he doubles his efforts to break free, breaking bigger and bigger chunks off. Right as he’s about to break free I feel Skaftás presence suddenly appear in my mind again. <em>“<span>She must be trying to force her way in.</span>” </em> I try my best to stay focussed on the memory and ignore her, pushing her away even.</p><p>Before my inner eye, Dorn breaks free from the egg and crawls towards me but is intercepted by his mother and cleaned up, much to his chagrin.</p><p>Skaftás presence fades away but not for long and when it makes it’s return it keeps growing stronger and stronger. I hear her voice faintly calling for me.</p><p>I’m tempted to listen closer and reply, maybe she has something important to say? <em>“No, I must stay determined.” </em>I watch Dorn approach me cautiously, his eyes locked onto mine and I carefully reach out towards him. I can suddenly sense Skaftás presence all around me instead of just one place like I normally can. <em>“What is this?” </em>I ask myself.</p><p>The short distraction is enough for her to break into my mind and I can suddenly sense her thoughts very clearly, hear her thoughts and feel what she’s feeling.</p><p><strong><em>“Very good Arya. You did extraordinarily well.” </em></strong>Her suddenly speaking to me completely throws off my focus. The barrier around my mind crumbles and her presence recedes back to the normal level.</p><p><em>“What? What did I do? Is that all?” </em>I’m quite confused while my brain adjusts to suddenly having to deal with all the sensory input again.</p><p><strong><em>“You put up a good fight. I’m quite surprised by how strong the barrier around your mind was.” </em></strong>She looks rather happy and proud of me and her mind confirms her expression.</p><p><em>“Did I? It only took </em><em>you minutes to break in though?” </em>I look at her with my head askew and raised eyebrows.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s not about the time, it’s </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>about how hard I had to try. How much resistance you your mind offe</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>red to my attempts to break in. I expected there to be little to no resistances</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em> but instead I had to actually try and bre</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>ak in.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I see</em><em>…” </em>I nod slowly. <em>“So that time I felt your presence all around me, was that the same thing you did to break my mind open the first time?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Indeed. </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>It’s ver</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>y impressive for a first try.</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em> I think you’</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>ve got the potential to be </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>very </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>good at thi</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>s. Just keep this up and you’ll give even us trouble in no time.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Really?” </em>I’m not quite sure what to feel, I’m a little proud of myself but at the same time I can’t believe it. <strong><em>“Trust me, you’ll see.</em></strong><strong><em> Just keep going the way you are right now.” </em></strong></p><p>I smile widely. <em>“I can do that.” </em>While I’m still sceptical, I’m now also excited to see what this will evolve into.</p><p>I quickly try to zone out again and try once more, though my giddiness turns out to be quite the detriment.</p><p>Eventually however, I do manage to zone out and as I do Skaftás presence and everyone else fades from my mind again.</p><p>Once more I focus on the memory of Dorn hatching. Once more Skaftá tries to break into my mind and after a few moments does so easily.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>“Impressive.” </em></strong>She states as she retreats from my mind again so I can go again.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Before you zone out again, try focusing on a memory right away instead.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>“Mhmm.” I mumble and close my eyes again. I pick up another one of my earlier memories with Dorn, one of the nights where we slept wrapped around one another. Surprisingly I can feel their minds disappear from my consciousness right away. Skaftá is the last one to fade away as expected. I almost lose my focus but manage to barely hold on.</p><p>I do my best to stay concentrated but still I can feel her mind slowly seep into mine after a few moments. And as soon as she gets a firm grasp on my mind, she can easily shatter the barrier.</p><p><strong><em>“Good job.” </em></strong>She says and I can sense her being very proud of me. <strong><em>“This is the first step towards passively sensing the minds of beings near you.” </em></strong></p><p>I’m very intrigued and look at her with a tilted head and slightly open mouth. <em>“How so?</em> <em>Also how did you know this woul</em><em>d work?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I didn’t know for sure that it would work. I just went on a hunch because when I was young this worked for me and my siblings.” </em></strong>After a brief pause, she continues. <strong><em>“You won’t notice it right away but as you train this </em></strong><strong><em>more, you’ll eventually begin passively perceiving the minds around you. With enough time you’ll also be able to passively regulate how much you can hear and see. Eventually, when you learn how to use your mind offensively as well, you’ll also notice your ability to passively build a barrier around your mind. Only breaking into someone’s mind will always be a conscious effort.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod as I process what she said. <em>“Then why did you start off by te</em><em>aching me how to zone out and just let my mind be free? It just feels like that was just an unnecessary risk if </em><em>it’s got little to do with learning how to passively perceive things.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“We felt it w</em></strong><strong><em>ould be better if you got used to the feeling of having you</em></strong><strong><em>r mind float around freely. You wouldn’t be confused and scared by this new feeling anymore and it would </em></strong><strong><em>make for an easier learning experience. Also knowing how it feels when your mind strays too </em></strong><strong><em>far is very important</em></strong><strong><em>.</em></strong> <strong><em>I</em></strong><strong><em>f you didn’t know how it </em></strong><strong><em>felt,</em></strong><strong><em> you’</em></strong><strong><em>d be at risk of losing yourself now</em></strong><strong><em> and it’s easier to lose yourself when you’re focusing on something else.</em></strong><strong><em> Think of it as a basic safety training.</em></strong><strong><em>”</em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“</em>
  <em>Sort of like doing a </em>
  <em>test jump out of a groun</em>
  <em>ded plane before</em>
  <em> jumping from some thirty thousand feet (10km). Or what my dad did with me earlier when he tried to build some trust into his spell and get me used to jumping off him.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, those are two good examples.</em></strong><strong><em>” </em></strong>She smiles warmly. <strong><em>“But le</em></strong><strong><em>t’s n</em></strong><strong><em>ot waste too much time, how about we keep going.” </em></strong></p><p>I return her warm smile and nod.</p><p>We repeat the whole process a few more time but after the fifth of sixth time I can feel my attention burning out. My focus starts to slip very easily, and my head feels achy.</p><p>Fortunately, Scáthán wakes up soon after. He stretches extensively, yawns widely and licks his chops. <strong><em>“Good morning.” </em></strong>Skaftá says to him, an unusual sweetness in her voice.</p><p>He blinks at her sleepily and smiles. <strong><em>“Good day to you two too.” </em></strong>I can sense an intense hunger in his mind as he looks around our surroundings.</p><p><em>“Already hungry again?” </em>I ask him, amazed that he’s already hungry again as if he hadn’t eaten in days.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You underestimate just how much energy I burnt earlier today little one. All those fish I had for breakfast, they barely covered the calories I expended.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I whistle quietly. <em>“I shouldn’t be surprised</em><em>. Such a gigantic body surely must need metric tons of energy. Yet here I am.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It’s getting quite late so it might be a good idea to head out and hunt.” </em></strong>Skaftá says to the two of us.</p><p>I look between the two of them, wondering if we’ll be going together or if one of them will be taking me with them. <strong><em>“You’ll be coming with me today.” </em></strong>Skaftá says right as my eyes wander over to her. <strong><em>“<span>Scáthán</span> will be taking your siblings with you since th</em></strong><strong><em>ey’re all hungry. Then we can use some of the time to prepare your dinner.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Sounds like a plan.” </em>I reply and hop off her paws.</p><p>She seems almost thankful when she stands up and gets to put her paws on the ground in a normal way again. Very gently, she nudges my siblings awake. They, much like their father, sleepily get up, wondering what’s going on. Though not for long as they quickly figure out that it’s time for dinner and they eagerly group around Scáthán as they get ready to head off. Dorn is the last one in the group as he spends a moment hesitating, not sure if he wants to go with them or me. <em>“Go with your siblings’ brother.” </em>He still isn’t quite convinced. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>I’ll do fine hunting my own food with either of you though.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I’m not concerned about that, I just feel that dad has something to teach you.” </em>He grumbles but then runs after his siblings and father as they’ve already begun heading off.</p><p><strong><em>“Ready to get going as well?” </em></strong>Skaftá asks me.</p><p>I turn around to reply with a nod but when I notice that her mouth is open just a little, I freeze for a second. I open my mouth to reply but when I can’t come up with a reply, I just shut it again.</p><p>She chuckles and shuts her mouth too. <strong><em>“If you don’t want to you don’t have to.” </em></strong>She turns a little such that she can grab me with her tail and quickly places me on her back. <em>“Thank you, I couldn’t have spoken up myself.” </em>Once she drops onto her scaly back, I sigh a sigh of relief and cosy up against her back. <strong><em>“Being able to read minds comes in very handy</em></strong><strong><em> at times.” </em></strong>She replies cheerfully.</p><p>
  <em>“I don’t think you needed to read my mind to figure out what was going on in my head.”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“True, but that assumes I can interpret your body language correctly.” </em></strong>She sounds quite bemused by my answer.</p><p><em>“I’m pretty sure the body language for “Oh fuck no.” is pretty universal.” </em>I laugh light-heartedly and shake my head. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Fear is indeed pretty universal. Wide eyes and freezing, sometimes then followed by a mad dash to escape. But that’s different from your reaction just now. You weren’t all that afraid.” </em></strong><em><br/>“I wasn’t afraid but I also wasn’t looking forward to it.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I can’t disagree.” </em></strong>She picks up the pace a little, going from a casual trot into a decently fast run.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>I hold onto her neck tightly and watch the ground fly by. We spend the rest of the way in silence until she suddenly stops somewhere in a forest.</p><p> </p><p>I look at her with an inquisitive stare and tilt my head. <em>“Am in right with the assum</em><em>ption that </em><em>w</em><em>e have arrived?”</em></p><p>Instead of an answer I feel her wrap my tail around me and gently place me on the ground. <em>“I take that as a yes.” </em></p><p>She smiles. <strong><em>“Correct. You’re getting pretty good at reading our </em></strong><strong><em>actions and body language.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Not that it’s all </em><em>that hard most of the time.” </em>I reply and stretch. <em>“What’s the plan now? You go hunt and I gather some stuff for myself?” </em>I look up at her expectantly.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Not quite. I was thinking of teaching you how to hunt for yourself today.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Surprised, I stare at her with wide eyes and subconsciously back away a few steps. <em>“But how? I mean I have some tools now but none all too useful to hunt.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You won’t need them.” </em></strong>She pokes around in the soil for something and pulls a roughly fist sized rock out of the ground. <strong><em>“For </em></strong><strong><em>th</em></strong><strong><em>e start, try this.” </em></strong>She pitches it towards me, and I catch it.</p><p>I eye the rock and turn it between my fingers. <em>“You’re trying to tell me I just throw t</em><em>his at my prey, hit it’s head preferably and make it drop dead? I don’t think I’m either precise or str</em><em>ong </em><em>enough to achieve much of anything with it.”</em> I look up from the rock and lock eyes with her.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you sure?” </em></strong>She grins knowingly. <strong><em>“Why don’t you give</em></strong><strong><em> it a try.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Uh, uhm, erm.” </em>I stutter and look around.   <em>“I guess?” </em>I shrug and firmly grasp the rock in one hand.</p><p>I take aim at a tree some thirty feet away from me. I firmly plant my feet on the ground and flex my arm a little, then focus on a spot in its bark to take aim.</p><p>I put my whole body into the throwing motion and nearly fall over forwards, not expecting the inertia to be that strong. The rock slams into the tree with a thunk, a second later followed by a rustle as it hits the ground. I slowly raise my head to inspect the damage I did.</p><p>Surprisingly, I took a good chunk of bark out of it. I rapidly blink a few times, not quite believing what I’m seeing. But after stepping closer and running my hand over the spot it’s clear that not only did I take off some bark but also left a noticeably dent in the wood. <em>“Darn.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p><strong><em>“See, you’ve </em></strong><strong><em>gotten rather strong.” </em></strong>She sounds proud of me and I can sense her trying to cheer me on. <em>“I guess so.” </em>I chuckle and pick the rock back up. <em>“Still I’d need to precision to actuall</em><em>y hit my mark.” </em>I get into position again, similar distance but different spot.</p><p>Again, I put all I have into the throw and again a thunk breaks the silence followed by a rustle. I slowly raise my head to see if I hit and much to my surprise, I actually hit close to the first hole.</p><p>I purse my lips and nod. <em>“I am shocked.” </em>I think to myself as I take a closer look at the impact site.</p><p>Seems I hit just an inch or so off to the right. <em>“Now I’m still not sure I could sneak up on anything that isn’t a literal rock or already dead but hey. If I do get close enough it seems I can at least </em><em>aim and do decent damage.” </em></p><p>I pick the rock up once again and look at my mother. <em>“So, what now? We just sneak off into the forest and hope we find something?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Not quite. Follow me.” </em></strong>She turns and walks into the forest. Though instead of her normal walking she seems to be taking extra care to not make any noise. With great success as well, I can’t hear her footsteps at all.</p><p>I do my best to imitate her, albeit with much less success. Especially with the backpack making plenty of noise with every movement. I quickly put it aside, hanging it on some higher up branch to keep most animals away from it. Then I hurry to catch up with her.</p><p>She must have gotten wind of something as she’s laser focused on something. For now, all I can do is follow her and keep the noise to a bare minimum.</p><p>Eventually, she comes to a sudden stop. She turns her head, having spotted something to our right.</p><p>I slowly turn as well and take a few steps to get closer. In the twilight of the woods it’s already getting harder to see but I still somehow manage to spot the herd of boars on the clearing.</p><p><em>“Oh…Don’t think I can do much here.” </em>I take closer look at every single one and while there’s one that does behave a bit sluggishly it’s also the furthest away. <em>“Even if I </em><em>hit, they’re much too stur</em><em>dy to care.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Hmmm you may be right. I for</em></strong><strong><em>got that this isn’t as effortless for you as it is for us.” </em></strong>She readies herself to pounce. <strong><em>“You should still try. </em></strong><strong><em>I’ll take care of the rest.” </em></strong>Her eyes grow wide and I can sense her whole body tensing up.</p><p>I nod quickly and try to pick a target. I set my eyes on a youngling that’s relatively close to me. <em>“Smaller but more fragile than the adults.” </em>I think to myself as I ready myself to throw.</p><p>I take one last deep breath before catapulting the rock into the clearing. I shut my eyes and cower once it has left my hand and I anxiously listen for an impact.</p><p>A squeal breaks through the silence, followed by the panicked sounds of hooves digging through the ground but they’re all drowned out as Skaftá lunges forward. By the sound of it, her claws rip through the ground like a plow and the impact of her landing makes the ground shake. The boars’ squeals only grow in intensity but not for long. One by one, they fall silent. Though a few do still get away. I wait a bit before glancing at the clearing again, I’m not sure what I’m afraid of but something deep down in my mind is telling me to be.</p><p>As expected, I see the usual bloodbath. Skaftá had torn apart just about everything she could get her claws on and is now happily devouring the pieces.</p><p>I get up step into the clearing. <em>“Sounded like I hit.” </em>I state, a lot of uncertainty in my voice.</p><p><strong><em>“You sure did. Didn’t kill it but it was concussed enough that you could have finished the job yourself.” </em></strong>She contently licks her chops as she swallows the last of the boars.</p><p><em>“Was it? Did I actually do it?” </em>I can’t believe it at first.</p><p>She nods and murmurs affirmatively. <strong><em>“I can show you.” </em></strong>She smiles happily.</p><p>I reply with a nod and close my eyes to brace myself. I feel her presence in my head grow and suddenly images come flooding into my mind. I see myself standing between the trees, flinging my arm forward with all my might. The rock soars through the air and hits the youngling in the head. A little higher and further back than I had aimed. It squeals and tries to run but its steps are wonky and disoriented. The rest of the herd tries to flee but before they can get far Skaftá already lands in their midst and quickly kills several of them, only letting less than a handful get away.</p><p>The memory ends there, and I find myself back in my own head. <strong><em>“You did very well Arya. With a little more training and </em></strong><strong><em>tools, you’ll be easily able to fend for yourself.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“You think so?” </em>I reply hopefully. <strong><em>“I am certain.</em></strong><strong><em> I know it’s not </em></strong><strong><em>easy,</em></strong><strong><em> but you should be more conf</em></strong><strong><em>ident in yourself. You’re not </em></strong><strong><em>as weak as</em></strong> <strong><em>you think you are.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“Just be more self-confident eh?” </em> I grin and remember how people told me and others to just “get over yourself” or “just be more self-confident”. <strong><em>“I know, I know. It’</em></strong><strong><em>s difficult. You can believe</em></strong><strong><em> me when I say I understand you. </em></strong><strong><em>We’ll be here to help you get there.” </em></strong>She nudges me encouragingly.</p><p>I lean against her head and gently rub my hands over her scales, not even caring that I’m getting a mix of blood, dirt and saliva all over my hands.</p><p><em>“And I</em><em> love you lot for that.” </em>We remain like this for a moment before I step back and lock eyes with her. <em>“But let’s not waste too much time on this. You must still be hungry I’m sure.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Indeed. And your hunting lesson isn’</em></strong><strong><em>t over yet either.” </em></strong>She smells the air for our next target while I look around for another weapon and coincidentally find the rock I had used before.</p><p>Once I pick it back up, I notice that she’s already leaving and quickly flit after her.</p><p>This time it takes us quite a while to find the next group of prey. Fortunately, it’s deer this time a rather big herd too.</p><p>I wait for her to get in position to lunge, then ready myself to throw as well. I chose an old male dear almost right in front of me as my target. Once the rock leaves my hand I don’t duck and hide, instead I watch.</p><p>The rock hits right behind the eye and without making much noise it falls over. It still spasms and struggles on the ground but can’t get onto its hooves again.</p><p>The rest of the heard tries to scatter but Skaftá is already in the air and rapidly decimates them as soon as she lands.</p><p>I watch in awe as she turns into a flurry of teeth and claws, leaving only devastation in her path.</p><p>And just as quickly as it begun, the massacre is already over. Leaving nothing but a ghostly silence in the clearing.</p><p>I step out of the shrubbery to get a better look at the carnage she left behind.</p><p>It looks like this time not a single one got away, she sits in the middle of the clearing. Surrounded by carcasses. <strong><em>“Good job little one. I knew you had it</em></strong><strong><em> in you.” </em></strong>She grins, exposing her bloody teeth.</p><p><em>“You did a very good job </em><em>yourself.” </em>I say, gesturing at whole clearing. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Someday you’ll be capable of the same all on your own.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I</em><em>’ll believe it when I see it.” </em>I shoot her an unbelieving look and look around the clearing again. <em>“Surprising how unbothered I am by this mess.” </em>The clearing looks like a crime scene and with every passing minute more blood soaks the grass.</p><p>I hear Skaftá starting to gobble up what remains of the deer. <em>“Surely this can</em><em>’t be all for herself?” </em>I quickly count the ones I can see. <em>“That’s over a dozen</em><em>. Sure, she can eat a lot but not this much.” </em>I decide that it’s not worth thinking too much about and instead wait to see what she does.</p><p>One after another she makes them disappear down her throat, though by the fourth she has slowed down quite a bit. She isn’t gulping them down in one go, instead she spends some time chewing.</p><p>She swallows with pleasure and turns her head towards me. <strong><em>“Those aren’t all </em></strong><strong><em>for me indeed. Some is for you and the rest is for later and dad.”</em></strong> I furrow my eyebrows and tilt my head. <em>“But isn’t he out hunting </em><em>with my siblings in a whole other direction? Won’t he be full by the time he joins us?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“He’ll probably catch something for himself, but he won’t be properly full. And by the time he’ll join us I’ll already have some space again as well.” </em></strong>She gathers up the leftover carcasses and piles them up. I count another nine and stare at the pile wide eyed for a moment. <em>“That’s what? A ton and a half of food?” </em>I shake my head. <em>“Why am I even surprised anymore? I saw them eat two cows for dinner</em><em>, that’s going to be at least equal to that.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Don’t spend too much time thinking. You’ll forget to eat again little one.” </em></strong>Skaftá has lain down slightly to the side of the clearing.</p><p>I chuckle and smile. <em>“Thanks for reminding. I do tend to </em><em>forget, don’t I?” </em>She answers with a quick nod. <em>“Alright then, where to start.” </em>I try to see if she had already cut out a piece for me. <em>“Doesn’t look like it.” </em>I subconsciously reach for my backpack, only to catch a handful of air. <em>“Right…Where did I leave that?” </em>I look around the clearing and realize I have no clue where we are.</p><p><strong><em>“Turn around until you face the trees, walk straight a bit, turn right, head straight a bit more and you should find it.” </em></strong>She tells me matter of factly. <em>“But didn</em><em>’t we walk all over the place? You make it sound like we’re close to our starting point.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“That’s because we are. We walked a big circle basically.” </em></strong>Her voice sounds so dry, as if it’s a given. <em>“But why? What? How? Shouldn’t we have scared the de</em><em>er off?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We did, but then the sounds of fleeing boars made them run back to where we started.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Wait so those boars escaping wasn’t you going easy but rather a ploy to manipulate this herd of deer?” </em>My mind is blown by the kind of forethought this must have taken.</p><p><strong><em>“All in a day’s work.” </em></strong>She appears to be rather proud of leaving my dumbfounded once again.</p><p>I open and close my mouth a few times, trying to come up with an answer but in the end remain silent.</p><p>I shake my head, still unable to believe it but then I also don’t have any evidence of the contrary.</p><p>In the end I decide to just head into the forest, grab my backpack and accept it for what it is. An extremely intelligent species hunting. I’m sure a human huntsman could employ similar strategies.</p><p><em>“Come to think of it, might not be too dissimilar from a battue or something. Wish I would have read more about it.” </em>I absently minded wander into the forest.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t forget to turn right.” </em></strong>Skaftá interrupts my thoughts and I nearly fall as I jump. <em>“Damn it, don’t scare me like that.” </em>I take a moment to catch my bearings. <em>“How far do I need to walk back?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Not at all. Just head right, should be up on your left after a bit.” </em></strong>Her voice does sound a little fainter than normal. <em>“Alright thanks.” </em>I look around, then get walking again. <em>“Must be the distance between us making her sound fainter. Only makes sense</em><em> that it would.” </em></p><p>And indeed, after some time I spot something peculiar hanging in a tree. <em>“What even is their memory?” </em>I shake my head and snag it out of the tree, then head back to the clearing. This time I take a more direct route, trying to sense Skaftás mind and following it.</p><p>Much to my surprise it works out rather well and I soon end up on the clearing again, just a few feet away from where she lies. <strong><em>“Welcome back Arya. I see you’re getting pretty good at sensing the general position of my mind.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I didn’t think it would work. I could sense a general direction for quite a while but never bothered to try and narrow it down more.” </em>I put down my backpack and dig through it till I find one of the bigger knifes.</p><p>I grin deviously and hold it up like I’m about to stab someone. <strong><em>“Careful there.” </em></strong>Skaftá interrupts me, sounding rather concerned. <em>“What has you worried? I’m pretty sure this’ll just bounce off your scales like it’s nothing.</em><em>” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I’m not concerned about my own safety, I just don’t want to have to stitch you up today. Besides, you also wouldn’t enjoy the experience.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I want to talk back but deep down I know she’s right. <em>“Alright.” </em>I drop the charade and get to work on one of the less mangled deer corpses. As I’m trying to chop off a leg, I notice how similar that just was to how she treats Dorn. Hell, I’ve done the same with him before as well.</p><p><em>“How the t</em><em>ables turn sometime</em><em>s.” </em>I keep idly hacking away at the deer, slowly getting frustrated at how little progress I’m making.</p><p>Finally, I find the last tendons that kept the leg attached and it finally comes off. Fortunately cutting through the knee turns out easier, though only because it’s much thinner. Eventually I’m left with just the thigh and head back to Skaftá so I can sit down and cut the actual meat off.</p><p>She moves her tail such that I can comfortably sit against her side and then watches me as I try my best to get the meat off the bone.</p><p>While the result isn’t all that nice it does the job for me, I cut off much more than I could ever eat in one sitting anyway. I throw the bone towards her and she swiftly catches and swallows it.</p><p><em>“And now I have a problem.” </em>I think to myself. <em>“How do I cook these?” </em>I want to scratch my chin but then notice my blood-stained fingers. I sigh and purse my lips.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Is it time for some magic or would you rather I light a fire?” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I think for a moment, I really don’t want to have her waste energy on this but then again, I’m super hungry and it’s getting late. <em>“I would hate it more to keep them here </em><em>late…So magic it is.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Just hold still for a moment then.” </em></strong>She moves her head close and stares intently at the mean I’m holding. Since it’s already quite dark the glow of her eyes becomes obvious quickly and I can watch the meat quickly change colour and steam begins to rise off it.</p><p>A few moments later the glow from her eye’s fades, leaving me with a few steaming pieces of meat. <em>“How nice it </em><em>would be to </em><em>be able to do this myself.” </em><strong><em>“Give it some time little one.” </em></strong>I nod quickly and carefully balance all but one chunk on her tail, then ready myself to tear in. I stop myself once I notice my bloodied fingers again. <em>“Probably not a good idea to ing</em><em>est wild deer blood eh.” </em>I try to wipe it off in the grass, but it doesn’t really work. Seems it has dried enough to properly stick to my hands. <em>“Damn it.” </em>I grumble and glare at my hands. <strong><em>“Mind if I clean you up?” </em></strong>Skaftá looks at me, her head tilted and a smile on her lips. <em>“Fiiine. But I don’t like how eager you sound.” </em>She sticks out her tongue. <strong><em>“You</em></strong><strong><em>’re reading too much into it.” </em></strong></p><p>I hold my hands towards her and grumble some more. <em>“Just get it done with.” </em></p><p>She gently runs her tongue all over my hands, quickly ridding me of the blood and much to my surprise my hands never once end up in her mouth. It actually kind of feels nice surprisingly. <strong><em>“There we go.” </em></strong>She states happily.</p><p>I wipe my hands on my jeans and try to put on an exaggerated expression of disgust. <strong><em>“There’s no use in trying to fool me.” </em></strong>A grin crawls across her face. I grit my teeth and grumble. <em>“Damn y</em><em>our ability to read my mind.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I guess there’s a catch to everything.” </em></strong>She makes a sound similar to a laugh. <strong><em>“But don’t worry, I’ll leave you be. </em></strong><strong><em>For the most part…” </em></strong>She winks at me the grin grows wider. <em>“I hope the last bit refers to me getting myself incredibly dirty.” </em>I give her a deadpan stare.</p><p>She answers with a nod and then rests her head on the ground. <strong><em>“You better start eating now, it’s getti</em></strong><strong><em>ng late.” </em></strong></p><p>I don’t let her tell me that twice and immediately chow down. The pieces that still have the fur attached turn out to be a pain to eat but I make it work. Mostly by slowly nibbling at them from the other side until I get close to the skin.</p><p>Since I can’t just scarf my dinner down as fast, I can chew I end up full a fair bit earlier than normal and leave the leftovers to Skaftá. Who’s all too eager to take them off me.</p><p>As I hold the last piece of mostly skin and fur in my hands, I have an idea. <em>“What if I take some of this and make it into leather? Don’t think I can tan it myself but with a little magic i</em><em>t could work.” </em></p><p>I shrug and throw that piece towards her as well. I’d need fresh ones if I wanted to try.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Good idea Arya. You could use the leather to make gloves and such.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“If I get enough, I could maybe even make some clothing out of it since what I have now will inevitably end up fucked beyond repair.” </em>The gears in my head start turning as I try to come up with more ideas. <em>“For </em><em>now, I should keep it to some small square pieces though.” </em>I get up again and try my best to cut a roughly square piece out of the underbelly of one of the animals.</p><p>Unfortunately, I cut too deep and end up with not only a patch of skin but also have a bunch of innards fall towards me. Much to my surprise I manage to avoid getting it all over me. <em>“Whew, lucky me.” </em>I sigh and take the piece of skin and flesh back to mom so I can work on it while sitting down. I carefully try to scrape off the flesh, so I’m only left with skin and fur.</p><p>As I’m slowly working on it, I notice a familiar mind pop up at the edge of my consciousness. <em>“Brother?” </em>I wonder quietly and the mind responds by lighting up a bit. If he were closer, I could probably hear him but not yet. <em>“They must be coming back soon </em><em>then.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, they’re only</em></strong><strong><em> some half a mile(~800m) away.</em></strong><strong><em>” </em></strong>She turns her head towards a wider gap in the trees, indicating that, that is where they’re coming from.</p><p>I place the piece of skin and knife on my lap and close my eyes. Focusing on my brothers mind I try to establish a connection. By the time I can properly focus on him I can also already sense Scáthán, but I try to ignore him for now. <strong><em>“Hello sister.” </em></strong>I suddenly hear my brothers voice and nearly jump. <em>“Welcome back brother.” </em>I reply after a pause. <em>“Good to see you lot coming back</em><em>. I also sense that you’re properly tired.” </em>I can feel affirmation coming from him. <strong><em>“Mom’s already pretty rough when she spends the whole day shooing us </em></strong><strong><em>around, but dad is a whole other level.” </em></strong></p><p>By now he’s close enough that I can feel a bit more of his subconscious mind and memories. The most recent memories are of Scáthán making all three of them chase after a ball of light he conjured. Since it’s only bound by the laws of physics it’s much more agile than anything I’ve ever seen before and leaves my siblings struggling to keep up. <em>“How long were you chasing that ball of light?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Too long if you ask me.” </em></strong>He sounds properly knackered and done.</p><p>My eyes snap open when I hear the rustling of leaves at the other end of the clearing. Scáthán emerges from between the trees, my siblings lying across his back like towels hung up to dry.</p><p>Coille seems to be fast asleep, Aonar is barely holding on as well. Only Dorn seems to have any energy left in him. <em>“Dang, he must have really shooed them around lots and lots.” </em>He settles down opposite of Skaftá and Dorn lazily hops off his back to glide to the ground. Unlike normally, this time it’s not a display of grace and he lands with a very audible thunk. His legs nearly give way, but he just barely avoids faceplanting. With a few shaky steps he walks up to me and curls up at my feet.</p><p>I smile and reach down to scratch his head. <em>“Poor you.” </em>As my hand makes contact with his scales, I feel an intense heat in my finger tips and instinctively pull back my hand. <em>“Are you okay?” </em>I ask him, I know their bodies can run rather hot, but this feels dangerous even for them. <strong><em>“I’m fine yes.” </em></strong>He replies and smiles at me weakly. <strong><em>“Just a little warm.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Just a little warm.” </em>I shake my head and reach out to rub his head again. I almost recoil again when I make contact. <em>“That has to be fifty degrees at least.” </em>I think to myself in disbelief.</p><p><strong><em>“Your estimation isn’t far off.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies.</p><p>She brings her head close and gently licks Dorns back. He makes some noises that could be displeasure, but his mind tells me he doesn’t mind all too much. After a few moments he even flips to the contrary, the water evaporating cools him quite nicely.</p><p>In the meantime, Scáthán has moved Aonar and Coille off his back and onto the grass as well. Coille only wakes up once he places her down and Aonar immediately spreads his legs and wings as far as he can to cool down quickly. Coille takes a moment to wake up and process what’s happening, then joins her brother and quickly falls asleep again.</p><p>I can’t help but chuckle a little. <em>“Boy am I glad I don’t have to go through all that.” </em>By now my hands feels like I’m about to burn myself on my brothers scales so I resume working on the hide.</p><p>It isn’t long before Dorn gets curious about what I’m doing, and I feel him poke and prob my mind to find out more. Seconds later his head appears, and he watches me closely. <strong><em>“Making replacement scales for yourself?” </em></strong>He asks me after a while. I look up from the hide and take a moment to think. <em>“You could call it that yes.” </em>His comparison amuses me but it’s quite accurate in the end.</p><p>He keeps watching me as I work my way across the hide and eventually, I deem it a job done well enough. <em>“Now to tan the bloody</em><em> thing.” </em>I hold it up and turn it a few times to make sure it’s good.</p><p><strong><em>“I heard you’re in need of something.” </em></strong>Skaftá says to me. I answer with a nod and drape the hide over my lap. <em>“You think you can tan this with just magic?” </em></p><p>She takes a moment to reply but then finally nods. <strong><em>“Should be able to but no promises.” </em></strong></p><p>Dorn and I watch her with great anticipation as her eyes pick up a dim glow and quickly grow brighter. Steam rises from the animals’ skin and the few bits of flesh remaining suddenly sizzle away. Then the hide itself starts changing. It contorts and changes colour and after a few moments stops steaming. Not much later the glow in Skaftás eyes fades. <strong><em>“And that should be all.” </em></strong>She proclaims.</p><p>I fiddle with the rather warm hide and it does feel like leather to me. <em>“Awesome, thank you mother.” </em>I smile happily and quickly roll up the piece of leather. It’s getting too late for me to bother with cutting this thing down to size, I’ll deal with it tomorrow.</p><p>I tuck it under my arm and glance at my knife. <em>“Should probably </em><em>clean that too.” </em>I also notice that I got my hands dirty again. <strong><em>“Can I help you with that?” </em></strong>Dorn asks me eagerly and puts his front paws on my legs.</p><p><em>“Sure, just be careful to not cut yourself.” </em>I hold the bloody blade towards him and after a moment of inspecting and sniffing it he cautiously licks it. He makes sure to never move his tongue against the sharp edge of it. Before long only the handle and my hand remain dirty so I carefully grab the blunt side of the knife and hold the handle towards Dorn. Once he licked it clean too, I quickly wipe it dry on the fur.</p><p>Lastly, I hold out my hand, fingers spread far to make it easy for him. He nudges my hand once, then sticks out his tongue and begins carefully licking the blood and bits of meat off me.</p><p>He takes his time and I suspect he’s just trying to annoy me. Eventually though, he does consider my hand clean. Just before</p><p> </p><p>I pull my hand back a mischievous grin spreads across his lips.</p><p>Faster than I can react he opens his mouth and moves his head forward such that my entire hand ends up inside. He pins my wrist between his teeth with enough force to keep me from immediately retracting it.</p><p>Fortunately, that’s all he does and moments later he loosens his grip on my wrist again, letting me yank it out from his mouth. I want to complain but at the same time I’m not at all surprised and kind of saw this this coming. <em>“I don’t know what else I expected.” </em></p><p>I shake my head and wipe my hand dry , all the while Dorn grins at me smugly.</p><p> </p><p><em>“Jerk.” </em>I grumble as I pack my stuff again, the backpack now so full it barely closes.</p><p>I turn back to face my mom and look at her, wondering if we’ll be heading home soon. The sun had set a while ago and the moon remains as the only source of light. <strong><em>“We’ll head home soon Arya, let your siblings rest for a little longer.” </em></strong>She tilts her head towards them, all three now spread over the floor. I nod and sit down on her tail again. It’s only fair to let them recover, I’ve never seen them so exhausted. Before long I end up idly staring into the sky, reflecting on all the things I did today. <em>“I feel like a wholly different person compared to </em><em>when I got up.” </em>As my eyes wander between the stars, I find myself imagining me on my parents back, flying up high in the sky. <em>“I think I want to try that again tomorrow.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“We can surely try.” </em></strong>Skaftá suddenly interrupts my thoughts. I quickly turn my head towards her and smile. <em>“We don’t have to do it tomorrow, I just want to go again at some point.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Whenever you feel ready little one.” </em></strong>She returns my smile.</p><p>I nod and return my gaze to the stars. Though my attention is brought back to earth almost immediately as I hear the wet sound of flesh tearing and bones breaking. Unsurprisingly,</p><p>Scáthán had gotten up and was engorging himself on the pile of deer. I don’t watch for too long and instead decide to try and lie down and rest a little like my siblings, though I doubt I’d be getting any sleep in.</p><p>I shut my eyes and resume reliving my memories of today. <em>“So many memories were made tod</em><em>ay.” </em>I think to myself as I try to sum up the whole day, it just keeps going and going.</p><p>Some time passes, dad finishes eating, or at least it sounds like it. I’m starting to feel really tired and drifting in and out of sleep. At first, I fight it, thinking that I’ll just keep make them stay out longer if I fall asleep but then I realize that it won’t matter. <em>“There’s nothing keeping them from just throwing me onto their back and flying back.</em><em>” </em>While I don’t fully stop fighting my tiredness, I stop being anxious about drifting off.</p><p>As expected, it’s a losing battle and not long after I’m fast asleep.</p><p>At some point I’m shaken awake for a moment as Skaftá places me on her back. I just barely feel her tail unravelling. I look around, confused, for a moment. Then crawl up to her neck and wrap my arms around it. The last thing I feel before falling asleep again is her taking off.</p><p>I’m awoken once more when she takes me off her back. I grumble and try to turn around but can’t since I’m wrapped in her tail. She keeps me wrapped up tight and places me by her side, then rests her head right beside me. While my vision is rather blurry, and I can barely keep my eyes open I can still see her eyes right in front of me. <strong><em>“Sleep tight little one, we’ll take care of you.” </em></strong></p><p>I try to make an agreeing noise but only end up groaning. <strong><em>“Shhhh, it’s okay.” </em></strong>She sounds rather bemused and I feel her tail pat my head.</p><p> </p><p>I close my eyes again but can’t quite drift off to sleep again. While I hadn’t noticed it before, a bone chilling cold had crept into my body again, probably because there wasn’t a spell to keep me warm while we flew back home. But I know I won’t be cold for much longer, I can already feel my skin warming up with the heat from Skaftás tail.</p><p>Whilst I patiently wait to fall asleep, I feel someone climb atop her tail and then jump over my head. I can’t quite muster the focus to feel who it is and also can’t be bothered to look. I hear them shift around, probably trying to get comfortable. Then I feel someone head being placed on top of mine. Judging by the size and weight of it, it’s probably Dorn. Finally, curiosity gets the better of me and I try to force my eyes open. Among the blue blur that is Skaftá I notice a little red as well. <em>“Ah, hello brother.” </em>My eyes fall shut again. <strong><em>“How come you’re still awake sister?” </em></strong> I hear him shift around a little more. <em>“Cold.” </em>I reply, my thoughts slow and sluggish.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m sure you won’t be for long, mom will keep you warm. And some day I will too.” </em></strong>He ends up moving his head off mine and placing it somewhere in front of me.</p><p>I smile at the thought of cosying up to an older and taller Dorn and not much later fall asleep.</p><p>For the largest part of the night I’m essentially in a coma, only much later do I start remembering any of my dreams.</p><p>The rest of the night I spend dreaming of flying and occasionally nose diving. Dorn joins me at some point and Coille joins us close to the end. And while the three of us having a blast, soaring about not caring about the laws of nature or physics it soon comes to an end as we’re awoken by our parents. I groggily open my eyes as I feel myself getting carefully placed on the ground.</p><p>To my right Dorn yawns and stretches, though I can sense that he isn’t enjoying the stretch.</p><p>Coille must have moved to my feet at some point during the night as she lies to my left, entirely unwilling to get up. She looks to be in even worse condition that my brother.</p><p>Lastly, I spot Aonar lying somewhere in the cave as well, he’s struggling to get onto all fours too, his muscles sore as well. <em>“I never thought I’d see the day where they tire my siblings out to the point of sore m</em><em>uscles.” </em>I grin and shake my head as I watch them. <em>“Wonder how long it’ll last.” </em></p><p>I notice that Scáthán appears to be absent. <em>“He must be out to catch breakfast.” </em>I stretch and yawn, enjoying the feeling of my muscles not giving me hell. As a response I hear my brother grumble and quietly growl to my right. <em>“Payback for yesterday.” </em>I reply while peering at him. He growls once more but then quiets down. I carefully pet his head and smile. <em>“Though I do still feel you, it’s no </em><em>fun is it.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It isn’t.” </em></strong>He replies and slowly drags himself closer to me.</p><p>I check what Skaftá is doing. She’s watching the four of us silently. I can’t quite tell if she’s tired too or if she just doesn’t have anything to say.</p><p>She notices me staring up at her and turns her head. <em>“So, uhm. What’s the plan for today?”</em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We were thinking of resting for the day, your siblings won’t be going anywhere and quite frankly I don’t feel like doing much as well. Maybe <span>Scáthán</span> will take you later if you want to go outside.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh. No, no, I don’t really feel like going anywhere either. I was just curious. A day of just relaxing sounds nice for a change.” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>I don’t quite believe it yet, surely one of them will come up with something for me and my siblings to do. If not that, then my brothers and sister will keep my busy no doubt.</p><p>A few hours after us waking up Scáthán returns with food for all of us and we all eat in peace. Afterwards my siblings do appear more energetic, but they still stay put for the most part. Especially Coille seems to be unwilling to do anything. After breakfast she drags herself to her mom’s side and curls up. I decide to join her and cosy up to her while Dorn and Aonar haphazardly fight over the last bits of food. She’s lying on her side, so I decide to rest my head against her underbelly. The moment I lie down I feel her moving and before I know it, she has draped her wing over my torso, letting only my head stick out through the small hole between her body and wing.</p><p>At first, I’m taken aback by her but quickly realize that this isn’t all that bad.</p><p><em>“Thank you, sister.” </em>I grab her front paws and carefully hold them. <strong><em>“You’re welcome sister.” </em></strong>She places her head close to mine and closes her eyes, she appears rather tired. <em>“Yesterday sure took its toll on you.” </em>I smile and rub up against her scales. <strong><em>“Sure did, I think I’ll be sleeping for most of today. Every bit of movement hurts.” </em></strong>She sounds rather weak and exhausted. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>And all the food I just ate isn’t helping either.” </em></strong></p><p> </p><p>I rub her paws a little. <em>“I feel you</em><em>. We can just stay like this if you want.” </em>Now it’s her turn to smile. <strong><em>“I would like that.” </em></strong>She shuts her eyes and wraps her wing around me a little tighter.</p><p>A while later our brothers stop fighting too and Dorn immediately beelines for me and my sister. <em>“Oh boy here he comes.”</em> Coille opens one eye to watch him and I can sense her praying that he won’t bother her. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to be in the mood for shenanigans. After looking at me with a bit of a disappointed look he lies down at my feet and curls up around my legs, resting his head just above my knees.</p><p><em>“Well, that’s certainly nice.” </em>I wiggle my feet to try and scratch his neck. His head pops into my field of view just barely as he stares at me with tired eyes. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Could be nicer though.” </em></strong></p><p>Suddenly Coille lifts up her wing a little, letting Dorn crawl under it until his head lies on my chest.</p><p><strong><em>“Much better, thank you sis.” </em></strong>Coille just nods and drops her wing again, burying Dorn under it. Only a little bump in the skin of her wings hints that he might be lying there.</p><p>Coille and Dorn fall asleep not all too much later and eventually I too pass out.</p><p>I’m not quite sure how long we sleep for, but it must be quite a while as the lighting in the cave is very different when we wake up again. Dorn appears to be much more energetic, unlike his sister or me. We both still don’t feel like doing anything. Luckily Dorn decides to not bother us for the time being and instead plays with his father.</p><p>And surprisingly, the day stays rather calm from here. Coille and I spend the day sleeping and cuddling while mom watches us, and our brothers mess around with dad.</p><p>During the later evening hours Skaftá has me try working on my mental barrier, though she only has me go a few times as she notices my focus being pretty weak today.</p><p>Before I know it the light from outside gets darker and Scáthán leaves once more to gather dinner for all of us.</p><p>While he’s out and about I gather up some wood and make a little campfire to cook, then set up the rack Scáthán made for me yesterday and hang my pot over it.</p><p>Skaftá then lights the fire for me and rests her head beside it. I arrange the assorted containers I collected over the last few days and place some cutlery in front of me.</p><p>This time he doesn’t take nearly as long to come back as he did in for breakfast and my siblings immediately jump on the pile of fish he brought for them.</p><p> </p><p>He and mom share a cow, a rather big one at that and I squirrel away a single fish from the pile.</p><p>While everyone is busy eating, I take my time to prepare my own dinner. I use the pan as a replacement plate to make it easier to prepare the fish and not spill spices everywhere.</p><p>Once I deem it ready, I drop it into the already quite hot pot and listen to it sizzle.</p><p>I patiently watch it cook and flip it over a couple times, moving it further to the side of the fire to ensure that it won’t burn.</p><p>As my dinner cooks my parents and siblings finish eating. Dorn quickly lies down behind me and watches me closely while Coille and Aonar go to rest by Skaftás head and Scáthán lies down opposite of her.</p><p><em>“I’m feeling just slightly watched.” </em>I think to myself as I let my eyes wander from one dragon to another.</p><p>I shrug and return my attention back to my dinner. “<span><em>I’m sure their eyes are never n</em></span><span><em>ot on me.</em></span> <em>Wouldn’t surprise me at least.” </em>I flip the fish around one last time before it should be done. The smell of fried fish and assorted spices filling my nose. <em>“I should also use up that onion soon. Otherwise it’ll spoil.” </em>My stomach grumbles and I feel a stinging pain in my gut. <em>“Soon.” </em></p><p>I already grab my plate and a fork in anticipation and greedily stare into the pot. With my stomach being a constant stinging pain, my already fleeting patience doesn’t last long, and I quickly pull the fish from the pot. I cut it in half to check if it’s done. Luckily, I wasn’t too eager it seems.</p><p>I make quick work of my meal, starting on the thinner ends since they cool down more quickly.</p><p>As I’m eating a thought crosses my mind. <em>“I’ve been eating nothing but meat for </em><em>a while now. Shouldn’t I be dying of malnutrition?” </em>I try to remember some symptoms. <em>“</em><em>But I’m not feeling all that off. At least not in a way that can’t be explained.” </em>I furrow my eyebrows and narrow my eyes.</p><p><strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>You’re probably lacking some nutrients, but it isn’t affecting you much yet. Also don’t forget that you do eat some fruit with some</em></strong> <strong><em>regularity. </em></strong><strong><em>So,</em></strong><strong><em> the </em></strong><strong><em>lack of vitamin C and </em></strong><strong><em>fibre is sort of made up for by that. Though there might be some smaller things you’re lacking so we’re both keeping an eye on you.” </em></strong>Skaftá interrupts my train of thought.</p><p><em>“That’s quite reassuring. Thanks for having an eye on me and my health.” </em>I take a moment to reply as her words derail my thoughts.</p><p>Once I’m full I stack all the dirty things together and move the pot as far aside as possible. <em>“Great, but how do I clean these?</em><em>” </em>My brother raises his head and looks at me. <strong><em>“Sounds like a job for me.” </em></strong></p><p>My eyes jump between him and the dirty plate with my mouth slightly agape. <em>“Yes but no. For a preclean it’s </em><em>fine,</em><em> I guess.</em><em> But not as the only </em><em>thing to clean them.</em><em>” </em>I glance at the pot, it’s covered in soot and I know there’s some burnt garbage on the inside. <em>“Besides, I’d rather you tongue stay away from my </em><em>cutlery,</em><em> but I think I still have something you can help me with.” </em>I carefully remove the pot from the fire, trying not to get burned in the process.</p><p>I pile the other dirty dishes onto it and carry it all to the caves entrance, my brother following closely. I sit down on a rock that sticks up far enough to not have waves run over it and place my things in front of me. The water is deep enough that the pot immediately fills with water. Fortunately, the rest is heavy enough to not float away either. I quickly rinse off the plate and other small things and stack them on another rock next to me.</p><p>Dorn watches and I can sense him wondering what I want him to do.</p><p>Soon, only the pot is left, and I try to heave it out of the water. Turns out, water gets really heavy fast and I actually have to lean into it get it up and out of the water.</p><p>I try to clean the bottom but as I expected a lot of the charred meat sticks to the bottom and I’d have to scrape it off. I dump out the water and turn the pot on its side, the opening facing Dorn. <em>“And this is where you can help me.</em><em>” </em></p><p>He sticks his head in, sniffs the deposits and gives them a cautious lick, only to grimace and pull his head back. <strong><em>“Gross.” </em></strong>I laugh quietly and grin. <em>“Guess you now know why I asked for your help. </em><em>I was thinking you could scrape it off with your claws? My fingernails can do the job </em><em>too,</em><em> but they also tend to break off easily.” </em></p><p>He lifts one paw out of the water and pokes at it with his claws, they seem to easily take off anything burnt but leave the metal mostly intact.</p><p>After a bit of experimenting he figures out what he has to do and quickly removes any major deposits. <strong><em>“Like this sister?” </em></strong>He asks after a bit and takes his paw out of the pot.</p><p>I quickly spin it around and take a look inside. All larger chunks are gone and only some small spots remain. <em>“Exactly, I think I can simply burn off the rest from here.” </em></p><p>I pile all my things up again and head back inside. <strong><em>“Just out of curiosity, why didn</em></strong><strong><em>’t you try and burn it all away in the beginning? Sou</em></strong><strong><em>nds much easier.” </em></strong>Dorn asks me.</p><p>
  <em>“If the pieces are too big it’ll require much higher temperatures than I can normally reach with a wood fire to fully remove the</em>
  <em>m. So, in </em>
  <em>the end it’d just be worse. However, with this little left I can just put it on the fi</em>
  <em>re and let it get really hot to clean it.” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Couldn’t you just have one of us breathe fire at it?</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em> Our flames get much hotter than a wood fire.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“</em>
  <em>Wouldn’t that</em>
  <em> put too m</em>
  <em>uch strain on your whole fire breathing organ? Besides, </em>
  <em>I think at those temperatures </em>
  <em>the metal itself will start to deform quite a bit, if not melt outright.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>If I’d need to do it daily it probably </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>would. Do you think it would need </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>really need that high</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em> temperatures? It</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>’s just carbon, right? That should burn pretty easily.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“You’d be surprised by how resilient carbon can be. I remember </em>
  <em>there being </em>
  <em>some stains on our hob that wouldn’t go away. The heaters go up to </em>
  <em>1100°F(600°C) and i</em>
  <em>t never went away.</em>
  <em>” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Curious</em></strong><strong><em>, didn’t expect carbon to be that resilient.” </em></strong>We arrive back at the campfire and I sit down again after hanging the pot over the fire again. I take a knife and shuffle the pot right over the fire. It has already burned down quite a bit so I might need to get more wood.</p><p>But in the meantime, I’ll use the heat of the fire to dry my dishes.</p><p> </p><p><em>“In </em><em>the future I’ll need some kind of towel. I guess t</em><em>hat’s what I’m going to do with the next piece of clothing that inevitably gets wrecked.” </em>In the background I hear my brother rummage around and suddenly he appears next to me with a bunch of wood in his jaws. <strong><em>“I hear you wanted to make the fire bigger?” </em></strong>He drops it all right next to the fire. <em>“Thank you very much.” </em>I rub his head and put the plate aside that I was drying.</p><p>I carefully throw the wood into the fire and watch the flames rapidly grow higher. The smell of burning fills the air as smoke rises from the pot. I wrinkle my nose but otherwise ignore it and get back to drying my stuff. With the fire burning much stronger now, I only need a few more minutes to dry the rest and then get to lean back and watch the flames.</p><p>Dorn wraps himself around me, placing his head across my thighs. I take a quick look around and see that my other siblings have already fallen asleep again. Skaftá has her head lying on the ground and her eyes half closed as well, she won’t be long as well. Only Scáthán looks to be fully awake still. I return my attention to the pot, wondering if the heat is still safe for it as it has picked up a slight orange glow. <em>“Probably, orange glow indicates a temperature around </em><em>1500°F(800°C) and iron doesn’t melt until nearly double that.” </em>Still I take a stick and carefully move it out of the flames. It should be clean now anyway and why expose it to more heat than I have to.</p><p><strong><em>“Also remember that it warps before melting and there’s a good chance you’re past that point already.” </em></strong>Scáthán says to me as I throw the stick into the fire.</p><p><em>“Would it matter all that much though? It’s not like it needs a flat bottom to sit on some kind of stovetop.” </em>The pot quickly loses its glow once it’s out of the flames.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“True but you should be more careful with your pan since that one needs to be flat to fry things.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Also, true, thanks for reminding me dad.” </em>I press my lips together and try to think of another solution to clean it thoroughly. <em>“If I could get stuff to not stick in the first place that would be great.” </em>I grumble and sigh. <em>“But outside of some kind of magic this won’t work.</em><em>” </em>I grab one of the knifes and look at it intently. Maybe just staring at the material would help.</p><p>
  <em>“Say <span>Scáthán</span>, we made this from car parts so it’s going to be alloy steel, but it looks very different. Any chance the composition changed when you melted it?”</em>
</p><p>He brings his head closer to get a good look at the knife. <strong><em>“It sure looks different.” </em></strong>I can sense the gears in his head turning. <strong><em>“It could very well be that, since I only specified iron for the spell </em></strong><strong><em>that I used to lift the molten metal up to then shape it, you ended up with cast iron tools or something similar.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Interesting, you did mention that spells are incredibly specific. It’s good I ended up with cast iron instead though. That means I can season it and make it non-stick that way. I’ll just need some tallow or fatty meat tomorrow.” </em>I look through the remaining dishes from today to see if any had already started to rust. Normally it would take longer but ocean water is known to accelerate corrosion lots.</p><p>And indeed, I spot a tiny spot of rust on the plate. <em>“Looks like it’s pure iron indeed. Though now I need a way of keeping these from rusting to pieces.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“We could get you replacements or we could use magic to keep them useable. I recon the energy used in the long run is about the same.” </em></strong>Scáthán rests his head on the ground next to me.</p><p>
  <em>“These will do for a while, and I assume it doesn’t need a lot of energy to remove the rust? It would be quite a shame if we threw them out already. Especially since you made them.”</em>
</p><p>I quickly scratch off the small speck of rust and put it back down. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>It’s really not a lot if I just remove the material instead of turning it back into iron. That way it’ll not last as long but long enough so we can make new ones.” </em></strong>I nod idly and stare into the flames again.</p><p>Never had I thought life with them could become this comfortable. I’ve got my own dishes. My own clothing and shelter are taken care of too. Somehow, I imagined this all to be a lot rougher.</p><p>I push myself up, much to Dorns surprise and dismay as he had already kind of dozed off. I kneel down next to Scátháns head and wordlessly pet his head and smile. He smiles back and a warm glow fills his eyes, but it isn’t the glow of magic. I slowly lean forward and wrap my arms around his snout, then rest my head on his scales.</p><p>As I lie there, on his head, I begin to slowly drift off to sleep. I consider getting up, but those thoughts end up losing themselves in my sleepiness. <strong><em>“Before you fall asleep like that, I rec</em></strong><strong><em>ommend you let me move you somewhere more comfortable.” </em></strong></p><p>I consider it for a moment but decide to do it myself instead. I push myself up off his scales and right as I try to get up, he yawns widely, giving me a good look into his mouth. I stare at the strings of saliva between his teeth and into his throat as my brain tries to figure out what to do.</p><p>Once I figure out that there’s no reason to flee, I cautiously shift my eyes upward to see just how far it opens. Only to see that even if I were standing up straight the tip of his upper jaw would still be above me. I follow it as he closes his mouth again and end up locking eyes with him immediately. He notices my wide eyes and shocked expression. <strong><em>“Oh no, I’m</em></strong><strong><em> so</em></strong><strong><em> sorry little one.</em></strong><strong><em> You </em></strong><strong><em>didn’t need to see that.</em></strong><strong><em>” </em></strong><br/>I open my mouth to say something but can’t find any words. I quickly close it again and rapidly blink a few times. <em>“No problem dad. It really isn’t an issue.</em><em> There was nothing to see.</em><em>” </em>I get up and walk up to his wing where I stop and wait for him to tuck me in. He hesitates a moment but then wraps me in his tail and tucks me under his wing. Dorn somehow manages to sneak as he does so cosies up next to me. Fortunately, Scáthán left me enough wiggle room so that I can free my arms and hug my brother. <em>“Good night you two.” </em>I close my eyes and try to see if anyone else is awake as well, but I only find sleeping minds.</p><p><strong><em>“Good night little ones.” </em></strong>Scáthán says as he moves his head next to us. <strong><em>“Sleep well sister.” </em></strong>Dorn snuggles up to me and I feel his snout brush against the top of my head.</p><p>We all close our eyes almost simultaneously and soon after, drift off to sleep.</p><p>The night passes with nothing interesting happening. In my dreams I join Dorn and relive the events of today from his and my perspective.</p><p> </p><p>Before long the sun rises once more and Scáthán wakes me up by gently shaking me. <strong><em>“Sorry to wake you up but it’s late and I’ve got to go. You can stay behind if you want.” </em></strong></p><p>I squint at him while my eyes adjust to the sudden change in brightness and grumble at him.</p><p>Suddenly I find myself lying on the cold hard floor and hear him getting up. <strong><em>“We’re just heading out sister. See you later.” </em></strong>Dorn says to me as he stands over me before he follows his dad.</p><p>The cave falls quiet again after a minute of trying to figure out what just happened, I sit up and look around. Only Skaftá and Coille stayed behind the other three had gone out. Probably to do their usual thing. <em>“But why did my sister stay behind?” </em>I look at her, feeling a little worried something is wrong with her. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Your sister is alright. We just overdid it yesterday and she needs another day to recover.” </em></strong>Skaftá answers my question. I crawl over to her and lie down next to her. <em>“Anything I can do for you?” </em>She opens her eye a little and when she sees me start smiling. <strong><em>“Nothing sister.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Alright.” </em>I nod but stay on the ground for now, I’m lacking the motivation to get up. <strong><em>“Uhm actually, can </em></strong><strong><em>you just stay by my side for the day?” </em></strong>She fully opens her eyes and stares deep into my eyes. <em>“Sure, why not.” </em>She seems exceedingly happy with my answer and quickly places one wing around me. I can tell she’s trying to pull me into her but can’t quite muster the strength to do so. I quickly wrap my arms around her shoulders and pull myself closer to her. <em>“Like this?” </em>I grin pat her back. <strong><em>“Yes.” </em></strong>I can hear the satisfaction in her voice and feel her tail wrap around one of my legs. <strong><em>“Thank you</em></strong><strong><em>, sister.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“No problem.” </em>I rest my head against her scales and feel her mind drifting off to sleep again.</p><p><em>“Boy </em><em>is she ever tired.” </em>I chuckle and shake my head a little. <em>“How come dad was in such a rush just now? He could have at lea</em><em>st let me wa</em><em>ke up properly before dumping me on the ground.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“He had tried to wake you up before, but your mind wasn’t receptive. So, he had to resort to </em></strong><strong><em>shaking you awake. </em></strong><strong><em>All that wouldn’t have been a problem if the big low that’s been approaching didn’</em></strong><strong><em>t speed up a bunch overnight. </em></strong><strong><em>If he had waited much longer, he wouldn’t be able to take your brothers out with him.” </em></strong>She pauses for a moment and looks up into the ceiling. <strong><em>“Though I do agree, he was a little brusque with </em></strong><strong><em>it all.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“Oh okay. How’s that low </em>
  <em>affecting my siblings so much though?</em>
  <em> Is it that the lower air pressure makes it harder for them to fly?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Kind of. </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>He was planning on taking them to high altitudes today but with lower air pressure that becomes less sa</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>fe. </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>Also,</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em> the winds get worse as it </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>draws closer and we might end up with a storm coming through in the next few days.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“How high altitude are we talking? I guess it makes sense that they’re much smaller and weaker and thus would be more impacted by the wind and air pressure.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“At least a </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>mile though I have a hunch that Dorn will be fine for quite a bit longer</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“That’s… </em>
  <em>impressive and scary. I couldn’t imagine being just weeks old and already </em>
  <em>going to those heights.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Don’t forget that </em>
  </strong>
  <span>
    <strong>
      <em>Scáthán</em>
    </strong>
  </span>
  <strong>
    <em> is there too. If anything goes wrong, he’ll catch them. You should know.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I should.” </em>I chuckle as memories of me barrelling towards the ground flash before me and my heart speeds up. <em>“W</em><em>hat a day that was.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“A day to be proud of Arya.” </em></strong>Skaftá adds encouragingly.</p><p><em>“You’re right. I think I want to do that again tomorrow, or once the storm has come to pass.” </em>Thinking that out loud already gives me a sinking feeling in my gut but I feel like I can overcome it.</p><p><strong><em>“That’s the spirit.” </em></strong>She sounds quite proud of me. <strong><em>“Before you or your sister get too hungry, I’ll go catch something to eat for us. You just stay with your sister and don’t try anything funny please.” </em></strong>I hear her get up just out of sight from me and trot toward the exit. <em>“Don’t think there’s anything funny to try. My sister is out like a light again. And with how she’s got me wrapped up I can’t real</em><em>ly go anywhere.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“That didn’t keep you and your brother from trying some risky things.” </em></strong>Her voice grows fainter as she takes off.</p><p>
  <em>“Fair. I promise I’ll just stay. It’s too cold to move too far from my sister anyway.” </em>
</p><p>By now she has faded so far from my consciousness I couldn’t hear her if she replied.</p><p>I spend the next while cuddled up to my sister, unable and unwilling to move. It’s nice to know that she won’t suddenly pull any kind of shenanigans.</p><p>At some point she stirs awake and sleepily stares at me. I simply smile and tilt my head a little. <em>“Hello there.” </em>I greet her and scratch the underside of her head. She looks content and smiles widely. <strong><em>“Hello again</em></strong><strong><em>.” </em></strong>She grumbles and I feel her trying to climb on top of me. <em>“Whoa, careful there.” </em>I get my arms under her and help her up while rolling myself onto my back. <em>“There we go.” </em>Coille quickly gets herself comfortable so that her head lies on my sternum. <strong><em>“This is nice.” </em></strong>I feel her shift around a little. <strong><em>“I hope I’m not too hea</em></strong><strong><em>vy for you. I know you can’t do this with Dorn anymore.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Nah, you’re alright. You’re not nearly as heavy as him.” </em>I wrap my arms around her. I can sense her happiness over it and can’t help but smile as well.</p><p>We lie on the ground like this until our mother returns with breakfast, at which point she carefully climbs off of me and leisurely starts pecking away at the pile of food. I’m about to grab a fish for myself as well when Skaftá interrupts me. <strong><em>“I brought something specifically for you.” </em></strong></p><p>I raise my eyebrows and watch her expectantly.</p><p>She reveals that she has the carcass of an adolescent pig wrapped in her tail. <strong><em>“I heard you needed some animal fat to season your pots and </em></strong><strong><em>pans, so I figured I’d bring some.” </em></strong></p><p> </p><p>I quickly assemble another campfire under the mounting rack for the pot, then get out the sharpest and biggest knife I got to get to work on the pig.</p><p>There’s lots of blood flowing everywhere as soon as I make the first big cut. I grit my teeth and growl. <em>“Now I get to clean blood out of my clothes. Really should have tho</em><em>ught this through better.” </em></p><p>I get to the other side of the cadaver and try to keep cutting only opposite of where I kneel.</p><p>With all the blood going everywhere and innards spilling out it becomes pretty hard to figure out what is what. <em>“What a mess.” </em>I think to myself as I dig for a flap of belly meat that I had almost cut loose. After some more cursing and fiddling around I get a large piece of very fatty belly meat cut free. <em>“Fucking finally.” </em>I wipe the blood off on the skin of the pig. There’s still a lot left in the beds of my nails and in every little crevice in my skin, but I don’t care too much. I plop the meat onto a plate and cut it into pieces of varying size.</p><p>With that part of the preparations done, I turn my attention towards the pile of wood. <em>“How do I control the temperature? If it gets too hot or cold it won’t work.”</em> I scratch my head, I should have probably thought about that earlier.</p><p><strong><em>“I think I’ll be able to tell you when it gets too hot or cold.” </em></strong>Skaftás voice breaks through the silence in my head.</p><p><em>“Oh? Don’t tell me you can also see in the infrared spectrum and use that to turn your eyes into thermometers.” </em>I look at her with leery eyes.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Not quite. I think the range of light I can see is a bit wider than yours but not enough to let me do that. However, I can smell the by-products of the reactions. So, I should be able to tell by smell if the temperature is right or not.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“That sounds a little less outlandish indeed. Just enough to be believable.” </em>I smile and nod slowly. <em>“</em><em>Only other issue I can see now is me burning myself. Other than that, I’m good to go.” </em>I peer at the piece of leather as it sticks out of my backpack. It’ll hopefully work, but it’ll be a bunch of work to cut it into shape.</p><p><strong><em>“I have a better solution for that. I could cast a spell to keep you from getting burnt. It won’t cost much energy at all.” </em></strong>She looks at the leather too. <strong><em>“We could also make gloves from </em></strong><strong><em>that, but it’d be a while. You’d also still need some form of thread to keep them together. And even then, I’m not sure how well it’ll work when you’re dealing with open flames for a longer time.” </em></strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em>“Good point, wouldn’t want to </em><em>unnecessarily burn it.” </em>I furrow my eyebrows as I try to figure out an alternative to yarn. <em>“I could </em><em>probably use animal tendons to hold it together th</em><em>ough.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“I like that idea, if you </em></strong><strong><em>want,</em></strong><strong><em> we can do that first too.” </em></strong>She looks over at the massacred pig, its sinew would probably do that job well enough.</p><p>
  <em>“Mmmh…No. I think I</em>
  <em>’d</em>
  <em> prefer using magic for this. Don’t want </em>
  <em>to ruin the leather.”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Alright,</em></strong><strong><em> then shal</em></strong><strong><em>l we start?”</em></strong> She rests her head next to me and I hear her inhale deeply, probably in anticipation of having to breathe fire. I stare at the wood and quickly nod. I have no idea what to expect. With a gentle <em>fwooosh </em>she unleashes a huge flame from her mouth and bathes the wood in bright orange fire. Seconds later I hear the wood pop and crackle. She snuffs the flames by shutting her mouth. Small columns of smoke rise from her lips for a few more moments.</p><p>I grab a piece of pork belly and turn my head towards Skaftá. <em>“So now I get the pot hot and just ru</em><em>b this all over? Your spell is going to protect me from burning myself.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“Yes, though the heat might still get uncomfortable at times. Still, it should never be able to burn you.” </em></strong>I can sense her watching me closely.</p><p>I stick my hand straight into the flames, bracing myself to immediately pull it back out in case the spell somehow failed. Unsurprisingly I barely feel any heat, only after a good while do I start feeling my hand warm up noticeably. I purse my lips a little and nod, thoroughly impressed by how well it works.</p><p>I carefully move the pot until it’s half in the fire and half out. My hope is that this way I can keep turning it to heat one side while working on the other.</p><p><em>“I should probably start on the inside. It’ll be easier to work on and have less temperature variation.” </em>I chuck one piece in to let it melt at the bottom and grab a smaller one to rub over the side. Since the metal is kind of rough it pretty quickly wears down the chunk I’m holding.</p><p>Once the piece at the bottom starts melting, I begin running other pieces through it and spreading the fat all over the inside.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“The right side is now getting hot enough, I recommend you turn it soon.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I reply with a quick nod and use my free hand to very slowly turn the pot. Maybe, if I go slow enough, I can keep all of it hot enough.</p><p>Though as it turns out, I’m a bit overzealous and turn it too fast, leaving it too cold to react, at least according to my mom’s nose.</p><p>As more and more of the pot gets hot a thick blue smoke starts rising from it, filling the air with the heavy smell of burnt fat. The fumes sting in my eyes but I power through it and keep going.</p><p>This whole spiel continues for quite a while, but eventually I feel like the inside is coated well enough and I can actually kind of feel things not sticking to the metal as much.</p><p>Now the outside turns out to be much more annoying to deal with. Firstly, the direct contact with the flames makes temperature control really hard and it takes me some time to figure out how to not burn the oil.</p><p>After much grumbling and cursing I do eventually get to a point where the coating is probably good enough to keep rust at bay, so I consider it done for now.</p><p>After moving the pot away from the heat, I take a moment to sit back and breathe as the fumes and smoke are making me feel rather lightheaded.</p><p><em>“Wonder how close to smoke po</em><em>isoning I am.” </em>I think to myself as my head spins a little and my balance feels wonky.</p><p>Then I notice my moms’ tail around my tummy. <em>“Where di</em><em>d that come from?”</em> I hadn’t felt her placing it there.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I was just about to pull you away from the fire</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>. You’re getting pretty close to </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>blacking out.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Uh</em><em> h</em><em>uh.” </em>I reply, feeling worse with every passing moment. <em>“I kind of fee</em><em>l like I want to nap…but I fee</em><em>l like I might not wake up if I do?”</em></p><p><strong><em>“If I weren’t here you wouldn’t. But don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.” </em></strong>Hearing her confirm my suspicion makes me extremely worried but then I notice the lack of worry in her voice. She sounds warm and comforting instead. <strong><em>“You really don’t need to worry. I’ll make sure you’ll recover.” </em></strong></p><p>I notice a very faint glow in her eyes, she’s probably working her magic to keep me from asphyxiating because my blood can’t carry oxygen. At least I think that’s what it is, I shouldn’t have burnt my lungs yet.</p><p><em>“How foolish of me. I’</em><em>ll need to be more careful.” </em>I think to myself as I lie against her tail and curl up. Even though she told me it’s safe to drift off to sleep I fight it with every fibre of my body and fortunately as her magic does its job, I quickly start feeling more alert again.</p><p>Once I feel like I’m out of the danger zone I take a deep breath and sigh. <em>“</em><em>Should have seen that coming. Sitting over a fire for I don’t even know how long. Carbon monoxide was bound to accumul</em><em>a</em><em>te.” </em>The glow in Skaftás eyes has faded again, meaning her spell is done. <em>“Thanks for saving my inept ass once more.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Now you know to better watch out.” </em></strong>She smiles and moves her tail such that I end up basically lying flat. <strong><em>“Besides, I only </em></strong><strong><em>got the Carbon monoxide out of your bloodstream. You should rest a little longer to let your body rid itself of the rest.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“You’re suggesting I nap?”</em> I snuggle up against her tail, I’m not quite tired but still slightly lightheaded. <strong><em>“Not necessarily, just rest for a moment. Let your body clean up a bit</em></strong><strong><em>. If you do fall asleep, I won’t mind it.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly and close my eyes while holding her tail tightly. Indeed, I don’t end up drifting off and get to let my thoughts wander a bit. Going nowhere in particular.</p><p>Soon my light-headedness turns into a headache which slowly abates and some hour later I feel pretty much normal again.</p><p>Still, I take a bit more time before I consider continuing with the pan. The fire had burnt down into a bunch of embers but with just a little more wood and the slab of rock it should do the trick.</p><p>Skaftá still lies next to me, dozing around, her mind appearing half asleep. I figure I should still go get my things ready so that once she’s fully awake again we can continue.</p><p>My rummaging around is already enough to make her stir awake, though I assume she could also sense the increase in activity in my mind. She watches me from her spot as I waddle back to the fire, trying to carry the rock, wood and the pan all at once. Turns out these things are heavier than they look. I carefully set it all down and chuck the wood onto the fire and watch as flames slowly consume it. <strong><em>“Good to see you’re already feeling better. This time try to not hold your head right over the flames.” </em></strong>She says to me as I reach for the rock to place it on the fire. <strong><em>“And before you do that, just wait a second so I can place a protection spell on you again.” </em></strong>Her eyes light up barely enough to be visible, then she smiles. <strong><em>“Alright, go ahead.” </em></strong>I reply with a nod and carefully lower the slab of rock into the fire. The lick over my skin but don’t burn me.</p><p>Then I place the pan on top and quickly throw in a piece of fat. Now I just wait till it starts melting so I can repeat what I did with the pot.</p><p>Luckily for me, since I can take the pan off the fire at any point, it’s much easier to keep temperatures in check. The smaller surface areas also means I can get it done much more quickly.</p><p>In just about half the time it took me to finish the pot I manage to season the entire pan, all the while making sure I don’t breathe in any of the blue smoke coming off it.</p><p>Finally, with it well seasoned, take the rock out of the fire again and place the pan on top to cool off.</p><p><strong><em>“Good job little one. Mind if I remove the prot</em></strong><strong><em>ective spell now?” </em></strong>Skaftá asks me as I shuffle away from the fire. <em>“Not at a</em><em>ll, go ahead.” </em>I reply while staring into the flames.</p><p>Outside, I hear the wind howl past the cave. This must be the storm she talked about earlier. I hope dad and my brothers are doing well.</p><p><strong><em>“They’ll be fine, they left in the opposite direction of the storm. At most they’ll have to deal with the outer parts of it.” </em></strong>She doesn’t sound all that worried so they must be fine, I’m sure even if my siblings had problems with the wind, Scáthán will make sure they got home safely.</p><p>I lean back and get comfortable, resting against her tail. <em>“</em><em>So, what do we do now? I know we’re supposed to be resting but I feel like I’d need something to do at some point.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You had a few more things you wanted </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>to make, mainly thread, a needle and a bo</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>w. All of these could easily be made from </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>w</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>ild animals. Sadly, I don’t think the pig I got you would be best suited for it. At least not for making a bow.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Mmmh? How come?” </em>I try to remember some of the books on ancient history and technology. I recall there being talk about making needles out of bones and thread out of sinew, same for bowstrings.</p><p><strong><em>“Bowstrings need to be very </em></strong><strong><em>elastic,</em></strong><strong><em> so it’s usually preferred to use deer or other sprinting animal tendons for it. Pig</em></strong><strong><em> bones also aren’t as </em></strong><strong><em>sturdy,</em></strong><strong><em> so anything made from them is going to break sooner.” </em></strong>She lets me process her words for a second. <strong><em>“That said, I think I may be able to catch o</em></strong><strong><em>ne for you later today. Right now, it’s too stormy. I could still hunt but I’d rathe</em></strong><strong><em>r not.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod along and purse my lips. <em>“</em><em>So,</em><em> you’re saying you’re going to dispose of the leftover pig and later bring in a deer or something so I can use it’s tendons and </em><em>bones to make tools. Also, what wood would I use?”</em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Indeed</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>, deer is probably the bes</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>t we can get. </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>Both for bones and tendons. For the bow you </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>would probably use yew wood.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“</em>
  <em>It’s what I thought too. What would I use to make the arrows then? Bone or wood?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“</em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>Probably wood as well. Though I think those might require magic to make. If they don’t end up perfectly straight, it’ll throw off your shots. Same things apply to the arrow head, those would likely be made from rock with magic. Then some feathers to stabilize it.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Where did you pick up all this knowledge? Did your ancestor steal it from ancient humans?”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Not quite. I stole it from you, well most of it anyway. Only the stuff about using animal tendons for the bowstring and as yarn to sew is from my parents.” </em></strong>She drops the grin and lifts her head over to be behind my back.</p><p><em>“You’re telling me I know these things but can’t recall them?” </em>I ask her with furrowed eyebrows.</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed. It happens quite often to you humans. You’ve got the knowledge, but it doesn’t immediately come to mind when you need it.” </em></strong>She brushes her head against my back.</p><p><em>“Oh, so that’s actually a thing? I can know something but when I try to remember it, it won’t come up?” </em>I enjoy her scales rubbing against me and lightly push myself against her. <em>“So, I wasn’t imagining these things.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You weren’t indeed. It’s common amongst your kind.” </em></strong>I turn around and lightly rub her head. <em>“Good to know.”</em></p><p>We stay like this for a little while, just enjoying the peace and quiet. At some point Coille wakes up again and joins us, after snacking on the remains of the pig for a bit.</p><p>She snuggles up against my back rests her head on top of mine.</p><p>Eventually the fire burns out and I notice how chilly the winds had gotten, though my mom and sister keep me warm enough to not mind it.</p><p>During the later evening hours, I spend some time training my mental barrier and trying to get better at controlling where my mind goes when zoned out. By now it only takes me less than a minute to zone out, whether I’m tired or not.</p><p>And while Skaftá calls my mental barrier “impressive” I find it hard to believe as she routinely shatters it with little effort. Occasionally she takes on me and my sister at the same time as well and it barely makes a difference to her.</p><p>Time flies and before I know it mom informs me that she’ll be leaving shortly to catch our dinner. Before she leaves, she picks up the disfigured pig carcass and swallows it swiftly.</p><p>I close my eyes and watch her mind slowly fade away, trying to figure out how far our mental connection can reach. While I can’t get too good of an estimate it seems to be roughly a quarter mile (400m) before I lose “sight” of her.</p><p>With her gone I start feeling the chill a lot more again, though Coille is quick to cover me as best as she can. I return the favour by wrapping my arms around her and hugging her tightly.</p><p><strong><em>“Do you think it would help if we played a bit? Should warm you up pretty quick.” </em></strong>She snuggles her head against mine. <em>“You’re probably right, but this is nice too.” </em>I nuzzle my head against hers. <em>“Besides, with you lying on top of me there’s really nowhere for me to go.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I like this too, then we’ll just stay like this for now. If you feel too cold say something and we’ll do something to warm you up.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <span>
    <strong>
      
    </strong>
  </span>
</p><p>Some time passes and we both remain still, just listening to the wind and doing nothing really.</p><p> </p><p>While we both don’t really want to get up, eventually I lose feelings in my arms and legs. At that point I know that unless I want mom to fix me up with magic again, I must do something.</p><p>I gently push Coille aside, she takes a moment to figure out what I want but then quickly hops off.</p><p>After stretching I put my hands on my hands on my cheeks to check how cold they are. At first, they just feel ice cold but then soon they also start burning, as if I was pressing my face into ice cold steel. I shudder and shake my head. <em>“</em><em>Sure, hope just wrestling with her will get me warmed up.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Ready sister?” </em></strong>She asks me and when I look over to her, I see her in position ready to pounce at me, her tail twitching left and right as if she had been itching for a fight.</p><p><em>“Someone’s very eager huh?” </em>I plant my feet firmly on the ground and slightly bend my knees in anticipation of her lunging at me. <em>“Ready.” </em>My eyes are glued to her as I wait for her to make the first move, hoping that the few feet between us would give me enough time to react.</p><p>Instead of jumping straight at me, she begins slowly circling me. Even though I’m barely moving as I turn with her, I already don’t feel the cold in my body anymore.</p><p>She keeps circling me repeatedly and I’m beginning to wonder if she’s ever going to do anything when I suddenly notice that she’s creeping ever closer with each round.</p><p>I try to back away but as soon as one of my feet is in the air she leaps forward and before I can get proper footing again, she latches onto me. I somehow keep my balance still and try to throw her off but she’s too agile for me to get a proper grip on her. The way she evades me makes it feel like I’m trying to push away a sentient blob of liquid.</p><p>My struggling combined with her climbing all over me leads to me toppling over and falling. I try to use this to pin her to the ground but again she somehow ends up avoiding it. I faceplant into the ground and feel my face and arms get scraped open in several places. Unlike Dorn, who would use the moment to bask in his victory and sit on my back, she hops right off and worriedly nudges my head. <strong><em>“Are you alright sister? I didn’t mean to get you hurt.” </em></strong></p><p>I grunt and push myself up off the ground, the scrapes on my arms stinging. <em>“I’m alright, just a little roughed up.” </em>I pat the dirt out of my clothes and inspect my arms. There are some half a dozen open scrapes, though none bleed all that much. <em>“Let’s keep going, I’m just barely getting warmed up.” </em>I take a step back and ready myself again.</p><p>Coille looks at me, still a little worried but as after a moment accepts that I’m not hurt and starts circling me again.</p><p>This time I don’t let her draw closer and instead start moving too, mirroring her and inching closer.</p><p>She’s taken aback by it and ends up retreating a little to stay out of my reach.</p><p>Eventually she does commit to the jump but this time I saw it coming. I try what I tried with Dorn and quickly turn and step away, hoping to make her jump at nothing.</p><p>Unlike my brother her reaction isn’t quite fast enough to still catch me, and she ends up landing a few feet behind me. I've already spun around but don’t go after her, instead we end up circling one another again. This time I’m much more aggressive with approaching her as I noticed that she doesn’t like being too close to me.</p><p>We end up scuttling all over the cave as she keeps backing away, barely staying out of reach and never quite committing to the jump. At the same time, I can’t do much about her backing away as she’s too small and low for me to easily get to her.</p><p>Just when it starts feeling like it’s never going to go anywhere, I decide to mix it up a little by suddenly jumping back. She stops dead in her tracks and I feel her mind trying to peek into mine to see what my intentions are. <em>“Not to day sister.” </em>I think to myself as I try to focus and keep her out.</p><p>While I’m not convinced that the weak barrier, I put up actually kept her out, she gets that I don’t want her peeking and leaves my mind be. Instead, she runs at me full throttle.</p><p>I feint moving right and just before lifting my feet off the ground I instead go to the left. She’s going too fast to compensate in time but still tries to jump and hopefully catch me with at least one paw or wing. While I could get out of the way I rather wait until she’s next to me and grab her shoulders. I push her away from me with all my strength, hoping to throw her off enough to make her fall.</p><p>She apparently didn’t expect any of it and thus ends up landing on her side, rolling onto her back from sheer momentum. I watch her struggle to regain her bearings. <em>“Now would be the time to pin her down.” </em> I take a step towards her when I suddenly remember what happened when I did this with Dorn. <em>“Wait, I’m safe now though, there’s a spell on her claws and teeth.” </em>I think to myself after a moment of hesitation.</p><p>Without wasting another second, I drop to my knees and grab her front paws, then lie down across her to keep her from moving. I figure it won’t last long but at least for a moment I’ll feel like winning.</p><p>She tries to free her front paws but surprisingly she isn’t as strong as I thought, especially the one that had fused joints at birth. She hisses and growls as she realizes that I have her pinned.</p><p>Like my brother she tries to get her hind legs under me but as I’m lying on my side, she can’t do anything. As her struggles grow more desperate, she also tries to get her tail onto any part of my body but it’s too short.</p><p>Just as I’m starting to feel victorious, she growls angrily and in one last effort tries to bite into my arm. The instant I feel her jaws close around my arm I let go of her legs and try to pull my arm back. As I let go, she quickly realizes that she overdid it and lets go as well. We lie in awkward silence for a moment before I get up and step back, letting her get back on her paws as well. <strong><em>“Sorry sister.” </em></strong>She says to me meekly. <em>“It’s okay, I almost expected something like this to happen. Same thing happened with your bother too.” </em></p><p>I bend down and reach out to rub her head but with my hand half extended decide against it. <em>“Give her some time to calm down first.” </em></p><p>Apparently, there was no need to wait or hesitate as she goes up to me and rubs her head against my hand. <strong><em>“It’s okay sister. I only bit you in the spur of the moment. I hope you’ll still want to play with me after this.” </em></strong>She sits down in front of me and stares up at me.</p><p>I chuckle and smile. <em>“Surely, those small incidents won’t deter me.” </em>I sit down so we’re eye level. <em>“Well with you and my brothers at least. Not sure how I would have reacted if it would have been with our parents.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Good, I would never willingly hurt you Arya. Sorry I didn’t have enough self-control.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I forgive you Coille.” </em>I spread my arms as an offer to cuddle again which she all too gladly accepts. She nearly knocks me over again as she tries jumps onto me, though I barely manage to control the situation and get us both lying on the floor safely. <em>“Don’t be so hasty.” </em>I say to her once we both settled down. <em>“</em><em>Otherwise, one of us will get hurt again.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Ooops. It’s nice of you to use us instead of I, really it’s only you who ends up hurt.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I chuckle and grin. <em>“You have a point, I guess I’m too soft and squish</em><em>y. Guess I need to start wearing an armour like those knights during the ancient times”</em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“But I don’t want to snuggle up to a tin can. Besides, isn’t that super uncomfortable and annoying to wear all the time?” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Sure, would be. It’s much cosier for me without one as well. Good thing we have magic to keep me safe.” </em>She murmurs affirmatively.</p><p><strong><em>“Oh, mom’s coming back soon.” </em></strong>She raises her head and looks up at the ceiling.</p><p><em>“Hmm?” </em>I close my eyes and try to sense Skaftás mind but can’t seem to find her.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“She’s quite far away still, I can just barely sense her.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“I see, your mind is really powerful huh?” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Maybe, mom and dad say so too. I guess there has to be some merit to it.” </em></strong>She lowers her head again. <strong><em>“Once she’s back she can relight the fire for you.</em></strong><strong><em>” </em></strong></p><p><em>“That’d be nice. Did she catch what she wanted?” </em>I look over at the pile of ashes and coals that are left of the fire. I should probably get better at keeping it alive. It’d solve a lot of my problems.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I couldn’t tell, she’s too far away for me to see any details.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Ah okay. I’ll just be patient then, won’t be too terribly long anyway.” </em>I tilt my head back as far as I can and stare towards the entrance.</p><p>Indeed, it’s not all that long before I hear the sounds of the waves suddenly change as mom lands. Moments later she rounds the corner into the cave, a doe hanging between her jaws. <em>“Wonderful, just what I needed. Dinner and tools all in one.” </em></p><p>She lies down in her usual spot and places our food next to her. Then she looks over to us, immediately locking eyes with me. <strong><em>“Just what have you two been up to? Didn’t I tell you to</em></strong><strong><em> be careful?” </em></strong>She says while staring me down, even though her expression is neutral I can’t help but feel anxious all the sudden. <em>“Erm…Nothing really. You mean these scratches? They’re not too bad. I’ll be fine.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Just because you’ve got a spell keeping you safe from her claws doesn’t mean she can’t still break your bones if she lands on your wrong.” </em></strong>She shifts her eyes to Coille. <strong><em>“That goes for both of you.” </em></strong>She silently waits for us to reply.</p><p><strong><em>“S-sorry, we’ll be more careful next time.” </em></strong>We reply in unison.</p><p><strong><em>“And you better mean it. I don’t want to come home to you being paralyzed because you broke your back. Magic can do a lot, but it can’t fix everything.” </em></strong>She blows a puff of smoke and growls.</p><p>Coille looks down at me with a downtrodden expression. <strong><em>“I’ll be more careful next time sister. I should have known from watching you and Dorn that</em></strong><strong><em> even with magic I can’t just play with you willy nilly.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Don’t blame yourself too much. I should have warned you to be careful as well. I’ve got experience with this after all.” </em>I pet her head gently. <em>“We’ll both take</em><em> better care next time.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Yes, that’s probably best.” </em></strong> She crawls off me but doesn’t move too far before curling up again.</p><p>As I get up, I peer at Skaftá, trying to sense how mad she is at us for not being more careful. Surprisingly she’s not all that upset with us, she’s more upset with herself for leaving us unattended.</p><p>I sit down next to her head and lean against it. <em>“Don’t be upset with yourself</em><em>. Nothing went wrong in the end. And I’m sure the risk of me breaking my spine is pretty low.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s not just that. I shouldn’t have left you two alone to begin with and I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you like that. Wasn’t really the fault of either of you.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“No, you had a point. Especially I should know to be careful when playing with my siblings and I assume it’ll only get worse as they grow.”</em> I smile and pet her head. <em>“Hopefully I learned my lesson this time.” </em></p><p>She grumbles and growls quietly. <strong><em>“As they grow </em></strong><strong><em>larger, they’ll also be more in control of their bodies and magic. At some point they’ll be able to cast their own spells to keep you safe. I’m more worried about the upcoming months. While they’re still small and haven’t quite figured their bodies out.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“So, I should probably refrain from playing with them while neither of you is around? At least for the near future?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It would probably be for the best. We should also probably just take you with us whenever you’d be alone with your siblings. That avoids the whole situation all together.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Though it would also lead to you guys needing to use more magic on me, so I don’t freeze to death. It’s been getting colder and at this rate I don’t think I can be left alone at all soon.” </em>I stick one hand up into the air to see just how cold the wind is. <em>“Feels like just above freezing.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s a problem we’ve been thinking about. If it comes down to it, we’ll take turns sleeping and keep a spell on you to keep you warm. Don’t worry about the energy expense, we know of a way to do it while using little to no energy.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“That sounds really inconvenient for you. Would you still be getting enough sleep then?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s not that bad. We really don’t need as much sleep as we’re getting right now. Technically we can go weeks without any at all. So, us taking turns will be completely fine.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Really? I mean I’m not surprised. I guess if that’s what it takes then so be it… Though if there’s another solution I’ll much prefer it.” </em>I purse my lips and scratch my chin, trying to think of a solution. <em>“I mean you two could just wrap me in your tail, that looks like it’s going to cover me well eno</em><em>ugh and keep me warm.” </em>I move back a little and stare into her eyes.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We considered it but don’t think it’d work to cover you fully. The times we did that before we couldn’t quite get you fully wrapped. Your head or feet would always end up sticking out.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>She locks eyes with me too. <em>“I mean that sounds fine by me. Dorn would be very interested in taking care of that.” </em>Skaftá smiles slightly. <strong><em>“It could work, though </em></strong><strong><em>it could get awkward as he grows up. Dad and I need to be close to one another to wrap you up like that and there’ll be a time where he’s too big to fit between us.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“Damn it. Why does this have to be so difficult? What about moving further south? I know that’s really unreasonable but I’m just wandering what if?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s not too unreasonable. We already moved to a region that should typically be quite warm even during winter, but it seems this year is just cold in general. We could go even further south, across the giant lake but we’d only find desert there. Which won’t help as it gets even colder there. There could be warmer pastures to the far east but it’s several thousand miles to get there. Currently the weather would make that a multi-day trip at best.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I figured that would be the answer. The energy needed to relocate far exceeds the cost of just using magic to keep me warm.” </em>I frown and sigh. <em>“So be it then…” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Maybe we’ll find something else. If we do, I’ll be sure to let you know.” </em></strong>Her smile grows a little wider</p><p>I mumble approvingly and nod. <em>“I’ll think about it too.” </em>I close my eyes for a moment.</p><p>Mya mind wanders a little as I still try to think of another solution and notice that Skaftá seems to be wanting to say something. <em>“Somethings on your mind mom?” </em></p><p>She takes a moment to reply, judging by her minds reaction I caught her off guard. <strong><em>“Hmm? Oh no, nothing really.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Nothing?” </em>I reply with raised eyebrows. <strong><em>“Nothing important.” </em></strong>She smiles and sniffs the air. <strong><em>“You’ll need to have a bath tomorrow.” </em></strong>Skaftá states matter of factly. <strong><em>“You’re giving smoked fish a run for its money.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Hey, it’s not that bad…” </em>I decide to smell my clothes and wrinkle my nose as the smell of cold smoke and burnt fat assaults my nose. <em>“Okay it is that bad.” </em></p><p>She chuckles and grins. <strong><em>“Told you. Now how about you get to work on that doe and grab some wood to make a fire?” </em></strong></p><p>I reply with a quick nod and get to work. First, I grab some wood and drop it onto the ashes. While I’m busy grabbing the carcass and dragging it to the fire I hear Skaftá light the wood with a quick burst of fire. Turns out a dead doe is heavier than expected and I have some issues moving it. Coille, who had already resumed snoozing next to mom, soon notices and joins me to help. Together we almost effortlessly drag it to the fire.</p><p> </p><p><em>“Surprising how much strength she has when dragging things.” </em>I think to myself, remembering how we were pretty even in strength when playing. <strong><em>“But that’s only because I could put my whole body into it.” </em></strong>She sits down next to the head and looks at me as if she’s waiting. <em>“I don’t even want to try and imagine the weight our parents could pull then.” </em></p><p>I look over the carcass, trying to figure out where I should start. <strong><em>“You’ll find the biggest tendon close to the spine</em></strong><strong><em>. It should span a good portion of its back.” </em></strong>Skaftá informs me.</p><p><em>“From here to here?” </em>I ask, pointing at its shoulder and back joints. <strong><em>“Pretty much, that muscle is a large part of the reason why they run so fast.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod and carefully place a knee on its side, then place a first cut near the hind joints. Fortunately, this time there’s a lot less blood flowing. Probably because I’m not poking around its innards and because it’s been dead for a while now.</p><p>The first cut is relatively quick, but when it comes to the long ones, all the way from the back to the front, it feels like I’m barely progressing at times. <strong><em>“Can I help you sister?” </em></strong>Coille asks me after a while.</p><p>Seeing how I’m barely about halfway done, and my back is already bothering me because of how I’m kneeling over it, I turn my head towards her and wordlessly nod.</p><p>She takes a moment to figure out how to help me without being in the way. In the end she decides to start the second, long, cut along its back on the other side of the backstrap.</p><p>Unsurprisingly, she’s much faster than me and we end up reaching the shoulder joint at almost the same time. <em>“Damn, you really tore through it.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“It’s almost like, these claws were made for it.” </em></strong>She grins proudly. <strong><em>“Though I also had some guidance from mom.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“Murder mitts were made for murdering.” </em>I reply with a smile on my face. <em>“I assume by guidance you mean her taking partial control of your body and guiding your paws?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Spot on.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies. <strong><em>“I had thought of asking you if you wanted to do the same but figured you prefer doing things on </em></strong><strong><em>your own.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Most of time I do. There’s also something about giving control over my body away to anyone that doesn’t sit well with me.” </em>I turn around to mom and look up at her. <em>“Eventually I’ll get around to it. Maybe.” </em>She answers with a smile of her own. <strong><em>“I understand.” </em></strong></p><p>We both briefly pause, staring at one another unblinking. Then I return my attention to the carcass. <em>“Alright, now to get this bloody thing out.” </em>I poke around the short end of it, trying to get the knife under it. <strong><em>“Can </em></strong><strong><em>I help you with that too sister?” </em></strong>Coille asks me when the knife slips off.</p><p>I grumble a little, then quickly nod. <em>“It’s probably for the best, otherwise I’ll just get annoyed again.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“And I don’t want you to be annoyed.” </em></strong>She says to me as she digs one of her claws into the flesh.</p><p>With a squelch she tears the strand of muscles loose. I grab the loose end of it and pull it up to make it easier for her to cut it out with her claws. Before long she has made it to the other end of it and I’m left with a nearly three foot (~1m) long piece of muscle and tendon. <em>“It did not look this lon</em><em>g before we removed it.” </em>I hold it up as far as I can to keep it from touching the ground while I try to reach for my pot so I can store it for the time being. Even then, it completely fills the pot and hangs over the edge far enough to nearly make it to the ground. <em>“G</em><em>ood enough for me.” </em>I think to myself and peek at the deer again. <em>“That’ll be enough sinew for what I need and meat for dinner as well. Only other thing I could need now would be some bones. Femurs</em><em> would probably be a good place to start.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Femurs you say?” </em></strong>Coille asks while looking up at me.</p><p><em>“Always listening…” </em>I reply, shaking my head. <strong><em>“Hey, not always. Only mom and dad do that.” </em></strong>She sounds almost offended.</p><p><em>“Not that I mind, comes in quite handy more often than not.” </em>I grin and pet her head.</p><p>
  <em>“Anyway, if you want to you can go help me get to those as well.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Oh, I was thinking of getting them for you so you can make yourself some dinner and do whatever it is that you want to do with the tendons.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“But wouldn’t that be taking advantage of you? I’m fine helping you. There’s no rush.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I just feel like we’d get in the way of one another. Besides, I’m kind of hungry myself and wanted to eat the legs and leave the bones to you.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“You can do that? Every time I see any of you eat you just chomp right through anything that gets between your jaws.” </em>I almost have to laugh at how ridiculous that just sounded.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Well yes… But femurs in general give me some trouble. You might not have noticed but I tend to use my back teeth for those while mom, dad and Dorn don’t. I and Aonar don’t quite have the strength for it.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Oh, I didn’t notice that indeed. I tend to not pay too much attention to how you eat.” </em>I chuckle. <em>“Would be kind of weird if I did, wouldn’t it?” </em>I think about her offer for a moment. <em>“Don’t want to hold you u</em><em>p any longer then. Go have at it. The rest is yours.” </em>I sit down next to my pot, knife in hand and start messing around with the end of the backstrap that hangs out of the pot.</p><p><strong><em>“I’ll do my best.” </em></strong>She says as she digs her teeth into one of the hind legs and rips it off with a few quick jerks of her head.</p><p><em>“For not having a lot of strength she ripped that one off with surprisingly little effort.” </em>I think to myself as I watch with wide eyes. <em>“No matter.” </em>I shake my head and turn my attention towards the pot. <em>“Time to get the skin off and figure out where the tendon actually is.” </em></p><p>Getting the skin off turns out to be pretty easy as the knife is long enough to get it all done in one fell swoop. Though I do slip up a few times and end up with multiple pieces of fur instead.</p><p>While inspecting the hunk of muscle and tendons I notice that there seems to be one really long and continuous one where the skin previously was. <em>“Well now I’m really glad I</em><em> only slipped up and out and didn’t cut into it. Otherwise that would have been a fun puzzle.” </em></p><p>Next, I take my dear time removing the muscle from the tendon. In the beginning I thought this part would be a nightmare and I’d end up ruining it all but surprisingly the whole thing is basically a wide flat band. <em>“Nice and uncomplicated for a change.” </em>In some half an hour I completely strip it of any muscle and am left with just the tendon. I chuck the last bit of meat into the pot. <em>“Stew time.” </em>I think to myself as I look at the pile of smallish meat chunks in the pot. <em>“Though that also forces me to sacrifice the last bit of my water. Guess now I have to find a way to get fresh water too.</em><em>” </em>I frown and sigh. <em>“The struggle never ends. Not that I’m struggling, it’s just annoying that every time I think I got it all together something runs out.” </em></p><p>I shrug and take a closer look at the tendon. <em>“Oh well, nothing to be done about it.” </em>I can see the fibrous structure of it. <em>“So now I dry it, split it into single strands, turn them int</em><em>o some kind of rope, strap it to a piece of wood, preferably yew and call it a bow? That sounds too easy to be true.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It is that easy though. For this once at least. That doesn’t mean it won’t be tedious.” </em></strong>Skaftá suddenly interjects my thoughts. <em>“I had a hunch.” </em>I look over my shoulder and up at her. <em>“So, I assume you’ve got some magic ace up your sleeve to dry this out in a matter of seconds? And that’s why you got my attention.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Smart little one. You’re learning.” </em></strong>She brings her head down next to me and eyes the mass of tendon that I’m holding. <strong><em>“Just stretch it out and let me work my magic, then you might just be able to finish it today.” </em></strong></p><p>I grab the two ends of it and stretch them out, it’s still surprisingly long. I almost have to spread my arms as far as I can. <em>“You remind me, just how late is it. Is the storm getting worse and how close are <span>Scáthán</span></em><em> and my brothers coming back soon?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It is getting quite late, we’re approaching sundown. The storm has only gotten worse and it might be that they need to camp out the night if they’re too far out still. Or <span>Scáthán</span> might be carrying them back and thus late. I wouldn’t worry yet.” </em></strong>Her eyes focus on the tendon. <strong><em>“Now just hold still for a second</em></strong><strong><em>.” </em></strong>Her eyes glow ominously, and I can see steam rise of the tendon as it begins to shrivel up and contract. I don’t even try to keep it at the same length as the fibres contact and end up with barely half the length I started with. What used to be floppy and soft is now stiff and fraying. <em>“Wow, that’s quite the change.” </em>I pluck at it for a bit but can’t quite get anything to come loose. Though after a few hearty smacks with a rock it starts peeling apart <em>“Welp, looks like I’m ready to go.” </em>I drop it into my lap and rub Skaftás snout. <em>“Thanks for the help.” </em></p><p>
  <span>
    
  </span>
</p><p>Slowly, I pick it apart. Strand by strand. It’s surprisingly easy to keep them in one piece. Before long I end up with a lap full of single sinew strands. <em>“I wonder if this will be enough.” </em>I put the leftover half or thereabouts aside and start organizing them. With about half a dozen of them in hand, I start weaving them into long strands. <em>“</em><em>Sure, feels menial plucking them apart first just to tie them up again.” </em>With some help from mom, fusing the ends together, I end up with pretty useable threads. Once I have three of them, I tie the ends into a loop and weave them together as well to get a single thick one. <em>“And this is my bowstring?” </em>I think to myself while inspecting my work.</p><p><strong><em>“Yep, that’s all you’ll need.”  </em></strong> I tug on it to test its strength and it barely flexes at all.</p><p><em>“Impressive what a bunch of dried animal parts can do.” </em>I roll it up and put it aside, then quickly use the remaining strands to make bigger ones and wrap those up too. I stash the small ones in my box of stuff, grabbing a bottle of water in the process. The big one goes into my backpack for tomorrow.</p><p>As I head back to the fire, I notice that Coille had finished eating and was now guarding a handful of bones. I stop next to her and look down, she’s already staring up at me with a smile on her lips. <strong><em>“Thought you had forgotten about me.” </em></strong>She pushes the bones in front of me. <strong><em>“The femurs you asked for and then some.” </em></strong></p><p>I kneel down and pick one up. It’s perfectly cleaned, the only traces she left is a thin film of semi dried saliva in some places. <em>“Damn, these look like they could go into a museum. How did you get them so clean? And not even a single dent in it from your teeth.” </em>I give her an impressed nod and pick up the rest. <em>“Thank you very much sister.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Heh, no problem sister. What do you think our rough tongue is for? Ripped the last bits of flesh right off.” </em></strong>She sticks her tongue out at me. <em>“I had a feeling.” </em>I reply and stick my tongue out as well.</p><p>Before continuing what, I was doing, I stop for a second longer. <em>“And I hadn</em><em>’t quite forgotten you. I just got too focussed on what I was doing. I would have remembered at some point.” </em></p><p>With the fire mostly burnt down again I throw on some more wood and hope it catches fire. In the meantime, I set up my pot to cook dinner, grab a few spices and salt and take a swig of water to quench my thirst for now.</p><p>Luckily, it seems I was early enough to rescue the fire and after a few minutes the flames lick past my pot again. From within it I can hear the sizzle of meat cooking. I grab the onion and chop it up as quickly as I can. <em>“It’s not going to be a nice soup, but it’ll be something that isn’t cooked meat.” </em></p><p>I dump it into the pot as well and wait a few minutes as the sizzling grows louder. After a quick stir and a few more minutes I dump the remaining content of the bottle into the pot. The sizzling grows louder for a second before being quite literally drowned.</p><p>I then sprinkle some herbs and spices in and add a little salt before the waiting game continues.</p><p>After letting it boil for a while, I take the ladle again and take a sip. As expected, it doesn’t taste like much of anything. A hint of meat and onion is in there but not much else.</p><p>I add some more things to it and keep tasting it and by the third time I decide that this is as good as it’ll get.</p><p><em>“Let’s hope I have a soup plate. Should have probably checked that beforehand.” </em>I go digging through the pile of dishes and as it turns out, I did have one.</p><p>I fill it and sit down next to moms’ head, resting the plate on my lap with spoon in hand. Just waiting for it to cool down. What I hadn’t thought of was the fact that metal conduct heats very well. After mere moments I notice the heat seeping through my pants and before long it gets nigh unbearable.</p><p>I quickly put the plate aside and drop the spoon into it to tend to my thighs which feel like they’re on fire all the sudden. Not that there’s much to do outside of pressing my palms on the spots that hurt and wait for the pain to fade. <em>“How could I possibly have seen that coming.” </em>I sarcastically think to myself.</p><p>After a much too long wait the plate feels cool enough to put back on my lap and I cautiously start sipping away at the soup. It’s still quite hot and warms my insides nicely.</p><p>I can feel my sister watching from a distance and as I’m getting towards the bottom of the plate, I figure I could let her try some. She evidently was listening to my mind again as she quickly gets up and gets to my side where she sits down and looks at me expectantly. I chuckle a little and shake my head. <em>“Here you go.” </em>I fill the spoon and hold it up to her nose. She sniffs it carefully, nearly blowing the contents off it.</p><p>I sense that she’s unsure how to use the spoon. <em>“Just open your mouth a little and put your tongue under it. I’ll take care of the rest.” </em>Her eyes shift to me, then back to the spoon and she cracks open her mouth just enough to stick her tongue out.</p><p>I tilt the spoon forward, letting the liquid flow off it and she quickly pulls her tongue back into her mouth, spilling only a single drop.</p><p>She takes a moment to analyse the taste. <strong><em>“Tastes like meat but liquid and there’s some other things I can’t q</em></strong><strong><em>uite place it.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“It’s not too far off to be honest.” </em>
</p><p>I fill another plate, making sure to get something solid this time as well. Once I finish it, I put the plate aside and move the pot to the side of the fire. <em>“Wonder if it’ll keep till tomorrow, I still have enough left for a whole day.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It should be fine if you just remember to add more wood now and when you wake. That’ll keep it hot enough.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Sounds like a plan.” </em>I grab some more wood and throw a couple pieces into the fire. Then I get comfortable and watch the flames for a while. Coille snuggle up to me after a moment and before long I can sense her mind drifting off.</p><p><em>“How late is it?” </em>I ask Skaftá, tilting my head back to look up at her. <strong><em>“Quite a bit into the night. You should go to sleep soon too.” </em></strong>I nod and stare back into the fire. <em>“I know, I’m just wondering if the</em><em>y’ll come back soon. It feels weird going to sleep without them. The whole cave feels so empty.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I can’t sense them yet sadly and with how the weather is they’ll most likely be camping out tonight.” </em></strong>She rests her head on the ground opposite of me. <strong><em>“I know how you feel but there’s nothing to worry about. <span>Scáthán</span></em></strong><strong><em> is with them, he’ll keep them safe.” </em></strong>I reply with another nod and close my eyes. <em>“I know. Still I can’t shake that feeling that something is off.” </em>With a sigh I decide to try sleeping anyway. <em>“I’ll just try and sleep then. Good night mom, good night sister.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Good night you two.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies. Coille stays silent as she must have already fallen asleep.</p><p>It feels like hours pass before I properly drift off to sleep and even then, there’s still this constant worry that keeps me from properly sleeping.</p><p>Hours pass with little happening. I’m briefly awoken as Coille stirs but quickly fall asleep again.</p><p>But then, during the middle of the night, I’m awoken once more. By someone gently brushing their claws against my cheeks. <strong><em>“Sister, I’m home.” </em></strong>Dorns tired voice sounds through my head as I snap awake. I look up at him and smile happily. <em>“Finally, good to see you back.” </em>I reach up, wrap my arms around his neck and pull him down. <strong><em>“The storm was worse than expected, dad had to go the </em></strong><strong><em>long way home. Sorry to keep you worried for so long.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“It’s all okay now. You’re safely home and unharmed.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Yes, it’s good to be here again.”</em></strong> He snuggles up to me, leaving me sandwiched between him and my sister. As he does, I can feel that his scales are cold to the touch.</p><p>
  <em>“Oh my, you’re so cold. What happened.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Windchill and absolutely brutal temperature drops.” </em></strong>He rubs his scales against me in an attempt to warm up. <em>“Oh no, are Aonar and dad okay too?”</em> Chills run down my back as his cold scales drain heat from body. <strong><em>“They’re fine too, but Aonar is just as cold as me.” </em></strong></p><p>I quickly look around, fortunately the fire barely emits enough light to let me see. Scáthán looks to be lying next to Skaftá with Aonar lying between his front legs.</p><p> Suddenly I notice that his eyes had begun to glow. <strong><em>“Let’s warm you </em></strong><strong><em>three up a little.” </em></strong></p><p>Dorns scales quickly heat up until they’re warm to the touch and I too feel a little warmth flow into my body. I assume Aonar is getting the same treatment. Just as quick as it started it ends again and his eyes stop glowing. <strong><em>“There, that’ll do for the night.” </em></strong>Scáthán lies down such that his head ends up next to Skaftás. <strong><em>“Thanks dad.” </em></strong>All three of us reply in unison.</p><p>Knowing that my dad and my brothers are all back safely I quickly fall asleep again.</p><p>The night passes quickly and during the early morning hours I’m awoken by Coille getting up.</p><p>I take some time to stretch and yawn before getting up as well. <b><em>“Morning sis.”</em></b> I direct my thoughts at her. I could probably sleep more if I wanted but I was too excited to head out and build a bow and do some more hunting. <strong><em>“Morning.” </em></strong>She replies as she too stretches and yawns.</p><p>As I think about the day ahead a thought crosses my mind.</p><p>
  <em> “I’ll also need more leather to make a quiver or something since I assume, I’ll end up with more than two arrows.” </em>
</p><p>I go through my backpack to make sure I have everything with me. Skaftá has already gotten up as well and seems to be ready to head out so I better hurry. <em>“One last thing.” </em>I think to myself before walking up to her.</p><p>I turn towards the fire, luckily it hadn’t quite burnt out yet. <em>“Lucky me.” </em>I carefully place some wood in the embers and watch anxiously as I wait for the embers to ignite it.</p><p><em>“Hopefully it’ll last till I come back.” </em>Slowly the piece of wood turns black and eventually flames start rising from it. This is my cue to carefully add some more wood to it and as I do the fire quickly grows. <em>“This’ll have to do.” </em>I add the last piece I had brought over yesterday and get up.</p><p>When I pass Dorn, I stop for a moment to see if he’s still fast asleep. <em>“Sleep well brother.” </em>I think quietly and head on. Seeing how yesterday went semi badly for them they’ll probably stay here for today.</p><p>I however, won’t. I quickly walk up to mom and Coille who had already been waiting for me at the corner to the exit. <em>“Sorry for the delay.” </em>I almost want to explain why but then remember that they probably watched me and even if they didn’t, they’d still know.</p><p><strong><em>“Ready to go?” </em></strong>Skaftá asks as lowers her head. <em>“As ready as it gets.” </em>By the way she brings her head close to me I can already tell what’s coming. For a moment I consider taking a step back and putting my hands up but then decide that today I won’t.</p><p>She sees my thoughts and pauses midway for a second but as soon as I’ve made my decision she grins and keeps moving.</p><p>I take off my backpack as quickly as I can and hold it away from me. Just as I do, she grabs me with her jaws and swiftly lifts me up to her back. I take a second to check myself and as usual there are only a few small saliva stains in my clothes as well as a general slight dampness.</p><p>After throwing my backpack back on I hold onto her neck. <em>“Thanks mom. I think I’m getting used to it now.”</em> I’m shaken a little as she starts heading towards the exit.</p><p><strong><em>“Very good little one.” </em></strong>She replies happily and a second later launches herself into the air and out of the cave as she takes off. Coille struggles to keep up with us at first but once we’re in the air she quickly catches up, trailing some distance behind us.</p><p>The storm had seemingly passed as the air is pretty calm, only the occasional breeze blows past. Though it is still quite cold, especially with the wind blowing into my face as we fly. <em>“Let’s hope we don’t have to go too far.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It’ll be some thirty minutes sadly.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies. <strong><em>“Hopefully this’ll help you for the flight.” </em></strong>Suddenly the wind stops blowing, as if it was suddenly frozen in place.</p><p><em>“Thank you so much.” </em>I rub my hands together to warm them up a little. With the wind gone the temperatures are much more bearable and after a little while I’m not actually freezing anymore.</p><p>
  <em>“Must be way below freezing today.” </em>
</p><p>The flight itself passes without much of anything happening. I watch the ground pass by, noticing that the occasional river or small lake appears to have a thin sheet of ice on its surface. <em>“Frost in the </em><em>Mediterranean. Now that’s something you don’t see every day. Or year really.” </em></p><p>Eventually she descends slowly and a few minutes later her paws make contact with the ground again and she comes to a gentle halt.</p><p>Coille lands beside her just a few seconds later.</p><p>I take a slow look around, we’re standing in a field with plenty of bushes and shrubbery, sparsely populated by trees with a few denser groups strewn throughout. One of them just a few hundred feet(~100m) ahead of us.</p><p>Skaftá is quick to grab me with her mouth once more and drop me back to the ground. As she lets go of me, I notice her eyes still glowing but then as she draws her head back the glow fades and I feel a light breeze again. I quickly stick my hands into my pockets and stuff the arms of my jacket in as well to keep the warmth in. <em>“At this rate I might end up stuck in the cave for a while till things warm up.” </em>I sigh and watch my breath condense into a cloud of fog. <strong><em>“Don’t worry, we’ll find a w</em></strong><strong><em>ay.” </em></strong>Skaftá smiles at me and blows some fog my way.</p><p><strong><em>“Before you cool down too much, let’s keep going.” </em></strong>She turns her heard towards my sister. <strong><em>“You can go hunt in the surrounding area. You should find plenty </em></strong><strong><em>of prey hiding under ground.” </em></strong>She turns back towards me. <strong><em>“And we will go into that group of trees there and get you a bow.” </em></strong></p><p>Without missing a beat, she takes a first step forward. Coille takes a moment to recover from the flight before heading off into the bushes, leaving me standing there all on my own.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you coming Arya?” </em></strong>Skaftás voice suddenly rumbles through my head. <em>“Yes. Yes, sorry, just a second.” </em>I spin around and jog after her.</p><p>Once we get to the trees, I notice that she won’t fit in between the them. <em>“Will she just knock them over?” </em>I wonder quietly but surprisingly she only follows me as far as her neck will let her. Not that that leaves her too far away from me. The grove is quite tiny.</p><p>I take a look around, trying to figure out which tree could be a yew, but I barely know enough about trees to discern Oak from Maple trees. <strong><em>“Stop, right in front of you.” </em></strong>Skaftá interrupts me mid turn. I jump a little at her suddenly interrupting me. Once I’m over the little shock I look up and notice a relatively small, almost conical with little exposed trunk near the ground, evergreen tree just a few feet in front of me. <em>“So, you’re </em><em>a European yew huh? Say how did you know exactly where to look?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“<span>Scáthán</span> and I had a hunch you’d eventually want to build some hunting tools, so we kept an eye out for resources. Then it was just an exercise of patience and memory.” </em></strong>She takes a step back and walks around the outside of the grove to get closer to me.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“There aren’t many trees like this around here and this one is quite young, but it’ll do.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I push a few of the lower branches aside to get a better look. <em>“Doesn’t look like there are any branches long enough.</em><em>” </em> I scratch my chin and try to guess its height, probably not a lot more than ten or fifteen feet (3-4,5m) <em>“Or were you thinking of using the trunk?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“That was the plan indeed. We’ll need almost it’s full length most of the upper half is not useable” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I quickly glance into my backpack and realize that I don’t have the tools for that. All I have is a knife and that could probably barely get through a branch or two. <strong><em>“Don’t worry. I knew I’d have to do a lot</em></strong><strong><em> of the work myself. Think of this as my gift to you. <span>Scáthán</span> gave you the tools to make food, I now gift you the tools to catch your food.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Wait…Another gift for me? Wasn’t the whole set of cutlery and cookware enough? Not that I don’t want or appreciate this. Truly I couldn’t be happier.” </em>It takes a moment for the realization to set in and even then, I’m not sure if I should feel happy or sad. <strong><em>“That</em></strong><strong><em>’s a gift from your dad. We felt we both should give you something separately instead of one thing jointly. So, this will be my half.”</em></strong></p><p>I feel my face turn red and heat up, another gift from them, well my mom to be precise. <em>“What have I done to deserve this?” </em>I ask myself only immediately decide that it’s not a question I need to answer. Instead I quickly run up to her and hug her snout to thank her for the gift. She gently pushes her head against me, easily lifting me off my feet. <em>“Thank you so much.” </em>If I were to speak right now my voice would probably be cracking up. <strong><em>“It’s my pleasure. Seeing you happy </em></strong><strong><em>makes me happy too.” </em></strong>She carefully lowers me to the ground again as she notices me struggling to hold onto her scales.</p><p><strong><em>“Now let’s not waste too much time, you’ll need to train using the bow as well.” </em></strong>She wiggles her head out of my grip.</p><p><em>“You’re right.” </em>I take a step back to let her work her magic.</p><p>She swiftly grabs the tree at its base and starts rocking it back and forth. The ground around its roots starts raising and falling as the tree moves, almost as if the earth started breathing.</p><p>The sound of roots snapping, and popping can be heard and the branches rustle as the whole tree is violently shaken. Needles rain down on her head, but she seems totally nonplussed by it.</p><p>Before long I can see bigger roots break out of the ground and finally with one powerful pull, she rips the whole tree out of the ground. She drags it out from between the trees and into the open.</p><p>I quickly follow her, wondering how she’s going to turn this whole tree into a single bow.</p><p>Skaftá pins the base of the tree down with one paw, then quickly strips the branches off with the claws on her other paw. Afterwards she closes her mouth around the ball of roots at the bottom and after severs it with her teeth.</p><p>With just the trunk left now she cuts off the upper bit that’s too thin to become a bow. She pauses for a moment, intently staring at the remains of the yew.</p><p>I watch her closely, anticipating that she’s going to use magic now. <em>“I wonder what for.” </em></p><p>Her eyes take on a light glow and the wood seems to almost liquefy before my eyes. The urge to touch it overcomes me, but I stop myself, worrying that the spell might do horrible things to me.</p><p>As the wood melts and warps the rough shape of a recurve bow becomes appears. The bark crumbles off like the scab of a wound and the knotholes melt away. A minute of slowly changing shape later, the trunk of the yew has morphed into a rather nice looking all wood recurve bow.</p><p>The glow in Skaftás eyes fades and a smile appears on her lips. <strong><em>“Go give it a try.” </em></strong></p><p>I very carefully pick it up, the handle fits my hand nearly perfectly, though it does feel almost comically large. Still cautious that it might break, I poke at the ends of it, watching them bend and then immediately spring back.</p><p><em>“Woah.” </em>I poke it again and watch in amazement. <em>“Magic sure makes everything possible. </em><em>How long would this have taken to craft by hand? Days? Weeks?” </em>I wave it around a little to get a feel for its weight, then pretend to pull an imaginary bowstring. <em>“Thou</em><em>gh I have to ask, just how huge is this thing.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It’s some sixty inches (~152cm) from tip to tip. It’ll shrink a fair bit once you attach the string though.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Oh right, talking about that.” </em>I quickly dig through my backpack and pull out the bowstring we made yesterday. <em>“This one’s supposed to go on here.” </em>I hold one end onto one tip of the bow and lets them both hang down. My heart sinks as I notice that there’s more than a foot (~30cm) missing between the end of the bowstring and the other end of the bow. <em>“Did I mess up and make it too short? This wo</em><em>n’t ever fit.” </em></p><p>Skaftá appears quite bemused by my shocked expression. <strong><em>“It’s alright little one. Don’t worry, it’s the correct length.</em></strong><strong><em>” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Really? I know it needs to be a little shorter to make the whole thing work but over a foot? I guess I just have to try.” </em>I hook one end onto the notch at the tip of the bow and firmly grab the other end, trying my hardest to bring them together. As the ends inch closer together I get the feeling that the wood must snap any second now. Surprisingly though, I manage to attach the other end as well without the bow exploding and without too much effort either. <em>“And in the </em><em>beginning, I thought I couldn’t possibly have the strength for that. Turns out it wasn’t too bad.” </em>I pluck on the bowstring and listen to it hum. <em>“That’s some tension for sure.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Good job Arya.” </em></strong>Skaftá nudges me with the tip of her snout. <strong><em>“Now shall we get you some arrows?” </em></strong>She asks me though I feel it’s a rather rhetorical question. <em>“I mean this thing is kind of pointless without them.” </em>I grab the handle and do a single careful test pull to full power. It’s quite some effort to draw it all the way back and keeping my hands steady. After holding that pose for a moment and the bow staying in one piece, I slowly let the bowstring pull my arm back to its original position.</p><p><em>“Do you think we could use the same wood we used for the bow?” </em>I ask, seeing how there’s still plenty of torn up yew on the ground.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I don’t think so. Arrows need to stay straight at all times to fly well and yew is quite soft and springy, so it’d deform when fired. Though we’re in luck, turns out cedar is generally pretty good at staying straight. And guess what we have growing the grove behind you.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Certainly not cedar.” </em>I joke and turn around. <em>“Right I still have no clue how those trees might look like…” </em></p><p>Skaftá makes some sort of chortling noise and walks past me. <strong><em>“Then let me fetch it for you. In the </em></strong><strong><em>meantime, if you could be so kind to find me a big rock.” </em></strong></p><p>I all too happily start scouring my surroundings for a sizeable rock, presumably to make arrow heads from. As I’m looking around, I hear the sound of breaking wood again and moments later, Skaftás head re-emerges from between the trees. A long and thick branch of what must be cedar in her jaws. <strong><em>“How many do you think you’ll need?” </em></strong>She asks me as she rips off the leaves and smaller offshoots. <em>“A dozen or two? Not </em><em>quite sure. I guess I’m more limited by quiver size than anything else. Which reminds me, that’s another thing we need to make.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“One thing at a time Arya.” </em></strong>After a brief pause, she continues. <strong><em>“How does twenty sound?” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Fine by me.” </em>I reply idly as I still haven’t found a rock.</p><p>She suddenly falls suspiciously silent as I continue my search, finding only small to fist sized rocks.</p><p><em>“She must be working her magic to make arrows I assume.” </em>I quickly peek over my shoulder and see her intently staring at the wood. It’s not visibly changing shape yet and I can’t see the glow in her eyes from here. <em>“I mean what else would she be doing.” </em></p><p>Not much later I do finally stumble upon a roughly pumpkin sized chunk of flint. After some digging and prying, I manage to dislodge it and start rolling it over to my mom.</p><p>She had in the meantime turned the cedar branch into a pile of scarily straight smaller sticks with some indentations. <em>“That was fast.” </em>I think to myself. <em>“</em><em>But they look awfully long, that’s about two feet (~60cm) if not more…Then again a big bow needs long arrows doesn’t it.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“They’re much less complex so I got them done a lot faster than the bow. They do look quite long I do admit but from your bow does draw quite far so it’s needed to make full use of it.” </em></strong>She picks the rock up with two claws and eyes it for a moment. <strong><em>“This one looks like it’ll do nicely.” </em></strong>She puts it down and her eyes begin to glow again. <strong><em>“Careful this might get loud.” </em></strong>She warns me.</p><p>I remember how it sounded when Scáthán split a rock to make me a makeshift pan. The sharp bang rang in my ears for quite a while. But this one isn’t nearly as big, so it won’t be as loud right?</p><p>I’m not quite so lucky as a sudden sharp bang makes me jump back. The piece of flint splits in half and things fall silent for a moment. Just when I start thinking it’s over a series of smaller sharp cracking sounds start making me jump once again. I instinctively avert my face out of fear that a rogue splinter might blind me. Each bang is accompanied by a quiet clinking sound as the arrowheads pile up on the ground. As quick as it started it’s over again. This time I’m much more cautious about lowering my guard. <em>“Is it done?” </em>I ask her cautiously.</p><p><strong><em>“Yes, it is Arya, it is now safe to turn around. There never was a reason to hide to begin with. I made sure my spell prevented any small splinters from flying off.” </em></strong>She replies warmly.</p><p>I slowly open one eye halfway and peek at where the rock was before. Now there’s just a bunch of arrowheads and assorted splinters left. <em>“Wow, they look really good.” </em>I pick one up and run my fingers over it. The surface is almost perfectly smooth, and the edges look razor sharp. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>They won’t stay that way for too long sadly. The edges will be really fragile and prone to breaking. But even then, they should still last you a while.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“So now we just need some feathers or stuff to stabilise their flight and assemble them?”</em> I take one arrowhead and a piece of wood to test fit them. They align perfectly and the friction itself holds them in place already. <strong><em>“It’s great if you’re not limited by your physical capabilities.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“You’re right, I wouldn’t ever have gotten close to any of this. Where do we get the feathers from though? I assume you’ll catch some bird and I get to pluck some of its feathers before you eat it?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You’re almost spot on. It won’t be me who catches the bird though. That’ll be your sister.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I look around but don’t see her anywhere around. But once I close my eyes and try to sense her mind, I spot her on the opposite side of the grove, heading towards us.</p><p>It’s not long before she makes her way through the trees. In her mouth she carries the mangled remains of a crow. <strong><em>“Mom told I could fetch a little something for you.” </em></strong>She sounds quite happy and drops the crow at my feet. Its wings sticking out at unnatural angles and the neck looking very broken. <em>“Damn, what did you do to it to mangle it that bad?” </em>I hesitate a moment before picking it up. <strong><em>“Not much, just swatted it out of the air. I guess the impact broke the wings and neck all at once.” </em></strong></p><p> </p><p>I idly tug on one of the wing feathers, trying to see how much it takes to rip them out. <em>“Must have been quite the hit then.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Not really, birds are really fragile.” </em></strong>She replies matter of factly.</p><p><em>“Fair enough.” </em>After some yanking and wiggling I finally get a feather to come out.</p><p>I hold the feather up to the arrows shaft and notice that it’s barely long enough. <em>“Maybe tail feathers are a better idea.” </em>I yank one out and it does look much more fit for my purposes.</p><p>Coille watches me for a little while before she leaves again, probably to hunt some more.</p><p>Once I pulled out a handful of feathers, I grab a knife from my backpack and cut them to size. It doesn’t quite fit as nicely as the head but that’s to be expected.</p><p>With some fiddling I manage to get three pieces to hold. I rest the arrow on my palms and hold it far away from me to get a good look at the finished product.</p><p>It looks almost too perfect, as if it were an artificial one and not made with some things we found lying around. <em>“Impressive.” </em>I hold it with one hand and run my finger over it. It’s length still feels wrong, but I trust that they’ll fit. <em>“Hell, if they’re</em><em> a bit too long it’s not really a problem. Too short however…</em>” I stare at the arrow a little longer before discarding my worries.</p><p><em>“And how do we make all of it stay together permanently?” </em>I ask Skaftá, tilting my head back to look up at her.</p><p><strong><em>“Just another pinch of magic and it won’t ever come apart again. Hold still for a moment.” </em></strong>Her eyes begin to glow for just a short moment and I quickly look at the arrow again hoping to catch what she’s doing to it. Much to my disappointment I don’t see anything visibly happening.</p><p><strong><em>“That should do the trick.” </em></strong>She says a few moment later and I carefully try to pull the head off the shaft. It’s doesn’t move at all, it feels like they got fused together, the feathers as well. I’d rip them apart before they came off the shaft. <em>“Oh wow.” </em>I think to myself and carefully put it aside. <em>“</em><em>So, we just repeat this nineteen more times?” </em></p><p>Mom replies by simply nodding.</p><p><em>“Alright.” </em>I take a deep breath and look at the pile of shafts, heads and the crow. <em>“This will be an experience.” </em>I pick up a shaft and put a piece of flint on one end, then chop up another feather to attach it to the end. Again, mom casts a quick spell to fuse it all together and I put it aside to start the next one.</p><p>By the tenth arrow I don’t even hesitate between steps anymore, it’s all just one fluid motion. Only occasionally do I stop to pluck a few more feathers.</p><p>As I sit there assembling the arrows the clouds above grow much denser, it does lead to oh so slightly warmer temperatures but at the same time the wind blows stronger and everything gets noticeably darker.</p><p>I don’t quite notice yet though as I’m too immersed in arrow making.</p><p>Some hour or two later I finish the last one and proudly look over the sizeable pile I’ve amassed.</p><p><em>“Can’t wait to try them. But I feel like this won’t be complete without a quiver.” </em>I look up at Mom once again. <em>“I hope that’s not asking too much of you.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Not at all, it’s one of the easier things to make.” </em></strong>She reaches for a nearby bush with one paw and quickly chops off a bunch of thin branches. <strong><em>“Good thing we kept the leftover wood around, it’ll come in handy now.” </em></strong>She places the bunch of branches next to the pile of leftovers and focusses her attention on it.</p><p>Right as her eyes begin glowing the wood starts melting again before getting lifted up by invisible hands that form it into a long cylinder. It too looks almost comically long but alas so are the arrows it’s supposed to fit. I try to keep track of which wood goes where, it looks like a good bit of yew goes into the bottom of it where the heads of the arrows would be while the upper parts are made of cedar. Finally, she uses the thinner branches to braid them into a long string and attaches them at the top and bottom of it. The quiver slowly sinks to the ground and Skaftás eyes stop glowing.</p><p>I jump to my feet and quickly pick it up, throwing it over my shoulder to see if the shoulder strap is long enough as it seems a bit short from afar, but it fits like a glove. Loading it with arrows while it’s on my back is quite awkward, in no small part due to the sheer length of the arrows so I have to sit down again and take it off. As I do, I decide to take a closer look, maybe I could find some trace left by magic. Though much like with the arrows and bow, the surface is perfectly smooth. No joints or faults in the material. The only thing I can feel is the transition from cedar to yew. I shake my head and hum quietly. As I fill the quiver with arrows the realization that it’s done sets in and excitement rises. In a few moments I’ll be able to take my first shot. “Exciting.” I mumble under my breath.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m looking forward to it too.” </em></strong>She sounds genuinely excited as well.</p><p>With the last arrow stashed I throw the quiver onto my back, the arrows clattering as they’re shaken around. I grab the bow and move some of the leftover wood and rocks aside. <em>“You want this?” </em>I ask pointing at what is left of the crow. <strong><em>“Mmmh sure. Can’t hurt.” </em></strong></p><p>I grab it by its talons and throw it towards her. It doesn’t fly nearly as I thought so Skaftá ends up having to jerk her whole body forward to catch it. <em>“Oops.</em><em> Sorry.” </em>I wince a little as her jaw slams shut so loudly, I worry she’d break her teeth. <strong><em>“It’s all fine, no need to worry.” </em></strong>She swallows the raven and locks her eyes onto me. <strong><em>“Now go and show me what you can do with that bow.” </em></strong>She sounds almost commandeering.</p><p><em>“Aye, aye.” </em>I reply curtly, tightening my grip on the handle of the bow.</p><p>I reach for an arrow and after some feeling around finally close my hand around the tail end of one. Slowly, I raise the bow so that the resting point for the arrow is at my eye level, then carefully place the arrow on it. I close my eyes for a moment to make sure Coille isn’t hiding somewhere in the bushes. At first, I can’t sense her at all but with some effort I spot her mind far away to my left.</p><p><em>“That’s far enough.” </em>I open my eyes again and hook the notch of the arrow onto the bowstring.</p><p>With a deep breath I ready myself to pull it back. I feel my heart speeding up and my hands shaking just a little with excitement.</p><p>Very slowly I pull the bowstring back until the head of the arrow almost touches the bow itself. Coincidentally, that’s also the furthest back I can comfortably pull it.</p><p>I take a moment to take it all in, then let go and listen to the bowstring zip back into its resting position, sending the arrow buzzing through the air so fast my eyes can’t follow it.</p><p>Suddenly a single rabbit jumps up from between the bushes, right into the path of my arrow and gets impaled. My jaw drops a little as I stare at the bleeding corpse of it. <em>“The fuck just happened?”</em></p><p>I slowly turn my head towards mom who’s still staring at me. <em>“Please tell me you did </em><em>that, and I didn’t just witness a rabbit committing suicide.” </em>She takes awfully long to reply.</p><p><strong><em>“Yep that was my doing. I wanted to see how you’d react. Also, it was supposed to act as a showcase of what can be done with one’s mind.” </em></strong>I sigh and shake my head, it’s an explanation for sure but I’m still a little shocked by what just happened.</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“So that’s why you were so eager for me to try the bow. And what do you mean? Did you mind control that poor rabbit?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Yes, to both. Though I also wanted to see how well it worked too. You could call it mind control. Remember when I told you about how, once you break open someone’s mind you can influence how it recovers from it and that can let you turn whoever into your puppet?”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    
  </strong>
</p><p>I only nod, my mind is still too agitated to think all too clearly.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“That’s basically what I did. I broke the rabbits mind wide open and corralled the pieces such that it’d let me do with it whatever I wanted. Then you can probably imagine the rest.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Again, I only nod as an answer and stay silent for now.</p><p><em>“That’s very scary to be frank. You could just break anyone’s mind open with little effort and there’s nothing that they can do about it.” </em>I frown at the thought of what they could have done with me and a little seed of doubt begins to sprout in my head. <em>“What if that’s what she did with me?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Because it is so dangerous, I want you to know about it and be aware of it. That’s also why I want you to learn to form a strong barrier around your mind. So, you can feel safe from us and potential attempts to take over your mind.” </em></strong>She sounds quite serious.</p><p>
  <em>“Basically, this was basically a rather crass demonstration of it? You quite literally made that rabbit commit suicide.” </em>
</p><p>She nods but otherwise stays silent.</p><p>
  <em>“Well, I guess it’s kind of reassuring that you haven’t made me jump down your gullet yet. That must mean you haven’t turned me into a puppet. And if I remember correctly you can only make someone your tool in the moments right after breaking open their mind? Once it reassembled itself you can’t do that anymore. But then, with an open mind you can always force your way in and take over though they may fight back now?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Indeed. As I said previously, I made sure to not touch your mind while it tried to put itself together to keep myself from influencing you at all. I know you’ll still doubt me and that’s fine. We need to earn your trust and I wouldn’t want you to blindly entrust yourself onto us.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I slowly nod and purse my lips. <em>“So re</em><em>ally this is supposed to motivate me to work more on my mental barrier to keep someone who might not be so positively inclined from taking over my mind.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I intended it as a showcase of how important it is to be able to protect your mind. You’re already doing well so far. This is not something you can or should rush as it’ll only make things worse. As you’ve noticed, this kind of focus leads to headaches quite quickly. Those then make it harder to keep your barrier up and eventually only lead to frustration.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Alright, so just a grim reminder for me to keep others I don’t trust out of my mind.” </em>I go to retrieve the arrow and rabbit. The arrow has pierced roughly halfway through the poor things head. <em>“At least it died instantly.” </em>I pull the arrow all the way through and head back, bloodied arrow in one hand, rabbit in the other. <em>“Catch.” </em>I exclaim and hurl it at Skaftá who expertly catches it mid-air.</p><p><em>“Now let’s see how far these really go.” </em>I think to myself and ready myself to shoot again.</p><p>My sister is still somewhere decently far away so I draw the bowstring once more, aim up a little and let go.</p><p>This time mom doesn’t throw anything into the arrows path, and it can fly through the air uninterrupted. I listen for the sound of it landing as my eyes still can’t follow it and after a few agonizing seconds I hear a rustle and see a bush shake. <em>“Dang, how far was that?” </em>I can barely see the bush anymore. <strong><em>“I’m feeling about seven hundred feet (~2</em></strong><strong><em>30m)” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I don’t believe it. Yes, it went far but not that far.” </em>I put down the bow and start heading towards the bush, counting my steps as I go.</p><p><em>“…248…249…250.” </em>I arrive at the bush and after moving some branches aside find my arrow tangled in it. <em>“Accounting for my steps not being exactly three feet (1m)</em><em> seven hundred doesn’t seem too far off.” </em>I purse my lips and nod. <em>“Damn, that’s kind of scary.” </em>I make my way back.</p><p><strong><em>“What did I tell you, seven hundred feet give or take.” </em></strong>She grins widely.</p><p><em>“Fair, fair. I just didn’t think I had the strength for that.” </em>I get in position again and load another arrow. <em>“But what good is maximum range when, realistically I’ll be shooting at much closer ranger at relatively small moving target.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“I think I might just have the thing for you.” </em></strong>She closes her eyes and focuses on something I can’t quite make out. Suddenly the air between the bushes distorts and a ghostly image of a deer appears.</p><p>Its body grows opaquer until it looks almost real. The only indicator that it is an illusion is that its legs get translucent towards its hooves, completely disappearing just above the ground.</p><p>I try to touch it but before my hand can make contact it jumps away and starts running away from me. I watch it run for a moment, astounded by how real its movements look. “Holy shit.” I mutter quietly. <em>“You just conjured that up?” </em>I ask mom while still staring at the fake deer.</p><p><strong><em>“Possibly.” </em></strong>She smiles. <strong><em>“I didn’t bother with the hooves as it would be a lot harder to make it look conv</em></strong><strong><em>incing with them. Right now, I don’t need to be too precise with it, there’s nothing that can disappear in the ground and break the illusion.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod and raise my bow. <em>“So</em><em> that’s my target for now?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Indeed. Try your best to hit it. I’ll do what I can to keep its behaviour realistic.” </em></strong>As she finishes her sentence the illusion starts grazing, occasionally raising its head and looking around.</p><p>I load the arrow I just retrieved and take aim. As the deer keeps raising its head in irregular intervals, I take my time to make sure its busy grazing before releasing the bowstring. But holding it at full extension for so a longer time quickly becomes tiresome and my hands start shaking, making my aim jitter all over the place.</p><p>Finally, I feel like I have to take my shot, or I’ll lose aim completely. I wait until right after it starts eating once more and let go. The arrow soars through the air and I watch the deer with rapidly growing anticipation. I’m not sure if I’ll see the arrow hit the dirt behind it or not but I pray that it doesn’t.</p><p>While it’s less than a second it felt like minutes when the deer suddenly screams, bucks and tries to run, though it stumbles and falls. It struggles to get up for a few seconds before lying flat on the ground. My arrow sticks out of its neck just behind its head, it must have hit the windpipe as its still breathing but doesn’t have the energy to get up and run anymore.</p><p>I quickly rush over to it to see the damage I caused. As I approach it starts kicking and trying to get up once more, forcing me to stay just out of its reach.</p><p><em>“Wait, it’s an illusion. Why am I so afraid of it?”</em> I take a step closer and immediately get hit by its translucent lower legs, they hurt just a real one would. Barely, I manage to jump back before the pain forces me onto my knees. <strong><em>“Just because </em></strong><strong><em>it’s an illusion you shouldn’t treat it lightly.” </em></strong>Skaftá speaks with a warning tone.</p><p>I groan and hold my left shin. It almost feels like its broken. <em>“But did you have to hit me so hard.” </em>I carefully feel my bone to see if it really broke. The pain is agonizing still but I power through it.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Would you prefer getting your bones broken during a real hunt instead? I went easy on you. It’ll only leave a bruise.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I try to stand up again, putting most of the weight on my other, less impacted, leg. <em>“But did you have to nearly shatter my shin?” </em>I grit my teeth and inhale sharply as I try to take a step. By now the deer illusion had tied and was only occasionally convulsing. <strong><em>“I do not want you to take things lightly. Even when the pre</em></strong><strong><em>y is as good as dead. You won’t be making this mistake twice now.” </em></strong></p><p>I growl but can’t argue back. She’s got a good point and I really do prefer making these mistakes in a safe and controlled environment.</p><p>After a little while the pain has subsided enough that I can kind of put some weight on it again.</p><p>I take a closer look and notice that the arrow sunk in quite a bit, it’s probably pretty close to piercing all the way through. <em>“Looks like it’s got enough power to be lethal even at long range. Longer than I expected honestly. Now I just need to learn how to hit things.” </em>I try to pull the arrow out but notice that it’s thoroughly stuck. <em>“Wait I remember now, pushing these things through is easier than pulling it out.”</em> And indeed, with a little push the tip breaks out the other end with an authentic squelch. I push it a little further, then grab the other end and pull it through. Right as the end comes out the illusion dissipates and the blood on the arrow fades along with it.</p><p><strong><em>“Good job Arya.” </em></strong>She opens her eyes again. <strong><em>“Let’s keep going</em></strong><strong><em>.” </em></strong>Having gotten more comfortable with her illusion skills she conjures the next one with her eyes open.</p><p>This time she doesn’t wait around and sends the illusion running straight away. I return to my usual spot and draw the bow once more. This one sadly doesn’t sit as still as the previous one and keeps running around, only rarely stopping.</p><p>I keep the tension of the bow for now as I watch it run, looking for some sort of pattern or a good moment to shoot. Unfortunately, there’s no patter to it running and stopping, I’ll have to react to it stopping it seems.</p><p>Right as I see it slow down again, I quickly draw the bow take a second to aim and immediately release it. Again, the time between firing and the arrow hitting feels like an eternity. And I’m not even lucky enough to hit my mark. The arrow misses by a couple inches as the buck lowers its head to graze for a moment. “Fuck.” I mutter under my breath and reach for the next arrow.</p><p>The clattering of my quiver makes the deer run away again, increasing its distance a lot.</p><p>Once I have another arrow in hand I try to sneak after it and close the gap. Much to my dismay I still end up making enough noise the alert it every time I draw close enough and it runs off once again. Eventually I give up trying to pursue it and decide to take the long shot.</p><p>Again, I wait for it to pause and aim for its shoulder. That way I won’t miss if it decides to graze again. The moment it stops again I immediately fire.</p><p>In my rush to shoot I end up pulling a little to the side sending the arrow on a different path than I planned.</p><p>I hold my breath and close my eyes as I listen closely for either a scream or clank.</p><p>As the screams of the doe fill my ears I smile and open my eyes again. It was a bad shot but still connected.</p><p>Since the arrow hit its hind leg, I still have to deliver the killing blow, so I get closer and aim another arrow, this time going for the head again. I wait till its movements die down a little, then shoot again. This time its scream gets cut shot as the arrow pierces through its skull and plunges deep into the brain, killing it nearly instantly.</p><p><strong><em>“Very good job.” </em></strong>The illusion dissipates and the two arrows fall to the ground. <strong><em>“Here’s another one.” </em></strong>She immediately conjures another one and sends it running the opposite direction. <em>“Damn, I don’t even get a minute to gather my arrows?</em><em>” </em>I quickly pick the two that hit off the ground.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I’m not forcing you to go after it immediately, you get to make the call.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>For a second, I weigh my choices. I don’t even fully remember where the arrow landed so searching for it might be a while. Going after the deer before it gets too far away is clearly the smarter choice.</p><p>And so, I run after it, stopping once it comes into sight and observing how this one behaves before choosing a moment to strike.</p><p>Skaftá keeps creating new illusions for me to hunt over and over again. Each one behaving a little differently, keeping me on my toes at all times.</p><p>By the fifth one I’ve already completely lost track of time but figure since it’s still light out it can’t be that late.</p><p>With every illusion I slay I get a little more confident with the bow. Arrows hit their target more precisely even though my arms get more tired with each hunt. I spend less time stalking them before committing to a shot and I get better at predicting them.</p><p>Hours pass as I’m completely focussed on hunting. That is until I feel something cold land on my hand.</p><p>I freeze for a moment and stare at my hand. It has started raining little white specks from the sky.</p><p>I tilt my head back and stare up into the clouds. <em>“Yup, that’s snow. Snow in the </em><em>Mediterranean.”</em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>More and more snow starts falling as I watch. <em>“Say did you know this was going to happen?” </em>I ask Skaftá. <strong><em>“I did expect some snowfall for </em></strong><strong><em>sure but didn’t tell you because I wanted to see your reaction.” </em></strong>She too is staring at the sky.</p><p><em>“How much do you think is going to fall?” </em>I look around to see a thin layer blanketing everything.</p><p><strong><em>“Not too much, two inches and change maybe.” </em></strong>From the edge of my vision I notice that the deer had stopped moving, probably because mum is busy watching the snow fall.</p><p>I quickly draw the bow, hoping to land a hit while she’s still distracted. Sadly, the deer jumps out of the way just in time. “Darn.” I grumble and grab another arrow.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t try to cheat little one. The only one you’re cheating is yourself.” </em></strong>She reminds me as the deer runs off far again.</p><p><em>“Yes, yes I know.” </em>I reply quietly and trudge after it again.</p><p>As the snow keeps falling the two of us continue the training session like normal, though before long it makes sneaking up on it nigh impossible as the snow crunches with every step I take.</p><p>Finally, after what must have been over a dozen deer illusion, Skaftá lets the last one fade without creating a new one. <strong><em>“It’s getting late Arya, we should </em></strong><strong><em>find some real dinner and head home soon.” </em></strong></p><p>I only nod for a reply. I can barely feel my hands anymore and my arms burn like hell from drawing the bow over and over again. Most likely I won’t be able to move them much tomorrow.</p><p>By now a thick layer of snow blankets everything around us. While it made sneaking impossible it makes finding my arrows much easier as I just need to look for the holes they leave.</p><p><em>“Am I going to join you on your hunt again or will you go off on your own today?” </em>I ask mom once I’ve found the last arrow.</p><p><strong><em>“You’ve done enough for today, I’ll take care of hunting for all of us. You just hide back there in the trees and wait for me to return. I hopefully won’t be long.” </em></strong>She scans the surroundings.</p><p><em>“Alright. And where’s Coille? Still out and about hunting or whatever?” </em>I start heading back towards the group of trees we came from. <strong><em>“Not anymore, she returned a while ago and has be</em></strong><strong><em>en sleeping as she too is quite exhausted.” </em></strong> Mom starts running and quickly takes off. <strong><em>“Stay safe you two. I’ll be back soon.” </em></strong>She rapidly shrinks and soon disappears over the horizon. <em>“Be back soon mom.” </em>Now that I’ve stopped moving around and using the bow, I feel the cold creep into my bones. <em>“Better get to shelter quickly before I get too cold.” </em></p><p>While I’m heading towards the trees, I notice an odd bump in the snow not too far away from it. <em>“Oh right, my backpack is still out here too.” </em>As I walk past it, I quickly snag it up and shake the snow off it. If it had been a bit longer, I might have mistaken it as a bush.</p><p><em>“Lucky me.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>Fortunately, the inner parts of the grove are quite well sheltered from the snow and wind. I set down my things and close my eyes, feeling around with my mind in hopes of finding my sister.</p><p>Since she’s sleeping her mind is a little harder to spot but I do eventually spot her sleeping in the trees not too far away from where I stand.</p><p>Even though I roughly know where she’s sleeping, I still take some time to actually find her, the fact that her scales mesh in pretty well doesn’t help either.</p><p>Once I do, I’m presented with the choice of either staying on the ground and letting her sleep or climbing up and possibly waking her. For the time being I decide to let her sleep and simply wait. Not much else for me to do anyway.</p><p>As I sit on the ground, my chin resting on my knees and arms wrapped tightly around me, I begin to wonder about the future. I’ve been so preoccupied with the present I haven’t really thought about what lies ahead of me much. Sure, I knew there might be something changing in my body and whatnot but what about my future with my parents and siblings. What will I do when the time comes to choose? Eventually my siblings will go off on their own. What will I do? Will I stay behind with my parents or go off with Dorn? Or Coille? Which also raises the question of why Aonar seems to care so little about me.</p><p><em>“I honestly don’t want to choose. I don’t think I could.” </em>I think to myself as I feel overwhelmed.</p><p><em>“Not right now at least.” </em>I tell myself, trying to work through my emotions. <em>“</em><em>Also, just because I might leave with one of my siblings that doesn’t mean <span>Skaftá</span> or <span>Scáthán</span> stop existing. I could go back and visit them occasionally.” </em>I take deep breath and close my eyes as I push my worries aside.</p><p>
  <em>“Besides, who knows what’ll change until then.” </em>
</p><p>My thoughts are interrupted by a rustle in the tree above me.</p><p>I tilt my head back to see my sister stretch yawn. Then she hops off her perch and lands just to my right. <strong><em>“I see you’ve returned.” </em></strong>She sounds quite sleepy. <strong><em>“But why are you dreading the future so much? I know the knowledge of eventually having to choose lies heavy on you but who knows how things will be by then. It’s still quite some ways away.”</em></strong></p><p>She sits down next to me and puts her wing around me. <em>“I know but with time ticking on the moment will inevitably come. There’s no two way</em><em>s about it. And whenever I’m left alone with my thoughts, I eventually end up thinking about what lies ahead.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“That’s true, there’s nothing to be done about it but with how much has changed in just the last few weeks who knows what’ll happen until then. I think you’ll be a very different person then, with different views on things.” </em></strong>She encouragingly nudges my head.</p><p>I nod slowly and sigh. <em>“You’re right. I’ll have to at least wait till the day is a lot closer before I can reasonably start thinking about it.</em><em> Any thinking I do now is just wasted.” </em>I put my arm around her, thankful for her warmth as the cold is slowly creeping up into my body.</p><p><em>“How did hunting go?” </em>I ask Coille to change the topic and keep my mind off bleaker topics.</p><p><strong><em>“It was quite fun. The frozen ground makes prey that hide in burrows really hard to get to. I think I wore down my claws a lot today.” </em></strong>She places one paw on my knee and spreads her claws for me to have a closer look at them. They do appear to be a bit duller than those of my mom, though I haven’t really paid too close attention to them. Once I run my fingers over them, I do notice a few grooves in them, and the tip doesn’t feel pointy or sharp in the slightest.</p><p>
  <em>“Sure, does feel like it. Was that just the frozen soil or did you dig through some rockier ground?”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“It probably was the rocks. They shouldn’t scratch them up this bad, but I guess with the ground being frozen they might damage my claws more easily.” </em></strong> She puts her paw back down. <strong><em>“Other than </em></strong><strong><em>that, I was mostly successful. Finding small animals like rabbits in their burrows just by feeling for their minds is quite difficult but I did get a few.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“So, you just snuck around and tried to sense the mind of your prey to figure out where their burrow is, then dug in and ate them? Reminds me of how glad I am that I’m neither a rabbit nor do you consider me prey.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I’m glad too. You being a rabbit would make for a much less interesting sister.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I chuckle and shake my head. <em>“I somehow doubt that things would have ended up this way if I were born as a rabbit instead.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“True.” </em></strong>She sounds rather bemused as well. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Though I wasn’t just going for rabbits. There was one fox den I found as well. And some moles and small rodents though I didn’t bother with them. Hardly worth the effort.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“You’d probably waste more calories digging for them than you’d get from eating them.” </em>I note.</p><p><strong><em>“Exactly. They’d barely qualify as a snack.” </em></strong>Her eyes wander for a moment. <strong><em>“I also saw that you got quite proficient with the bow.” </em></strong>She says as she notices my stuff sitting on the ground not too far away. <em>“I wouldn’t call it proficient</em><em>, the illusions were always semi predictable. I just had to find the pattern and take my shot at the right moment.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Still it was quite impressive to see how much damage those arrows can do even at a distance. And they aren’t even fired from a big bow, let alone from one of those modern composite ones. It’s almost like magic.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“True I guess, though I wouldn’t say that there are all that many similarities to magic. Sure, it kills even at longer ranges but that’s where the similarities end.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Fair enough, I still find it impressive how you humans overcame the lack of claws and teeth and even ended up with scarily efficient weapons. Those guns you invented are pretty scary even for us.” </em></strong>She keeps eyeing my bow.</p><p>
  <em>“We really only survived as a species due to our ability to invent shit. I mean there’s nothing on us that could make us an apex predator except our brains.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“And opposable thumbs, or so I’ve been told.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“I guess so. Also do you really things guns and other firearms could pose a threat to a dragon?”</em>
</p><p>Coille thinks for a moment before replying. <strong><em>“Probably not to an adult one</em></strong><strong><em>, don’t know how that would go if it were me or my brothers though. And without magic even adults could be taken down. Maybe not with a single firearm but a group armed with some high calibre guns and a weakened dragon could see him drawing the short end of the stick.”</em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“That sounds pretty improbable to me. Wouldn’t the dragon see the humans coming long before they could see him and then leave if he knew he’d be unable to protect himself from the bullets.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“For sure. I just tried to come up with some hypothetical situation in which humans could best a dragon.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I grumble affirmatively and stare off into the distance. The only thing that feels even remotely feasible, were a war between dragons and humans to break out, would be to fire thermonuclear weapons at them. And even with those I’m sure a healthy dragon could still somehow survive the blast, if he couldn’t just disable the thing before it blew up. <em>“I wonder ho</em><em>w humanity would react if we knew dragons exist and how little of a chance, we stand against them.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Good thing we don’t have any intentions of revealing us or starting anything any time soon. We really have no interest in conflict of any form. We know that it’d just get very ugly very quickly. For both sides.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Again, I nod and hum in agreement.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Anyway, I’m still curious to watch you fire that bow from up close. How about you show me what you can do with it.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Sure thing.” </em>I carefully push her wing off my back and get up.</p><p>She follows me closely and gets behind me as I grab the bow.</p><p>I look around for a suitable target and decide to just take shots at one of the trees.</p><p>I carefully load an arrow and slowly draw the bowstring back. <em>“I sure hope it can take the impact.” </em></p><p>I close my eyes and let go, hoping to not hear the sound of wood shattering.</p><p>With a quite audible thunk the arrow hits a tree and fortunately stays in one piece. “Whew.” I sigh and put the bow down. <em>“Lucky me.” </em>I walk over to the tree and inspect the damage, then pull out the arrow. It didn’t get too far, pierced the bark and then a tiny bit of the trunk, it doesn’t take too much force to get it out again.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Woah, that was pretty cool. I see how weapons like this can easily make up for a lack of claws and stuff.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I chuckle and smile. <em>“Probably. I wouldn’t know yet. Haven’t actually </em><em>gotten to use it on any real target yet.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Wood is pretty hard though, and if it can get stuck in a tree it can pierce skin and flesh. It might take some more training for you but I’m sure you’ll be quite the hunter once you get the hang of it.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I turn away from her and shake my head <em>“You flatter me.” </em></p><p>I put the arrow back into the quiver and put the bow back down. <em>“</em><em>I wonder if I need to be careful with this thing when hunting along you or the others. Could the arrow get through your scales?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Mom and dad’s scales are too thick for sure, I’m not certain about mine or my brothers though. Dorn is probably beyond the point where he can be harmed by them, Aonars and mine might not hold up if you hit us at full force and close range. Especially in places where they aren’t as thick to begin with.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Okay, so for now I should be careful with where I shoot but once you three have grown some more they’ll just bounce right off?” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Yep, though it might be a few months before we reach that point.” </em></strong>She sniffs the bow and inspects it closely.</p><p><em>“Noted.” </em>I reply.</p><p>We huddle up under a tree and do our best to keep each other warm while we wait for our mother to return.</p><p>With not much to do as we wait, we both stare off into the distance, both of us zoning out not much later. As soon as I notice that my mind had detached from my body, I remind myself to not try and wander anywhere. With no one around to reel me back in before I stray too far, I probably shouldn’t be doing this in the first place. Though before I can bring myself back into the real world my sisters mind catches my attention. I notice how it appears to have grown foggier, opaquer, since I last took a closer look at it. After a brief pause, I decide I could probably keep watching her and try to figure out why it’s harder to see into her thoughts. My mind would be staying put after all so no risk of losing myself.</p><p>As I’m watching her mind, I see the usual branches grow from my mind and reach for hers, I almost want to stop so I won’t disturb her when they make contact but at the same time I wonder if what I’m seeing around her mind is this barrier mom talked about. If that were the case, then she should barely notice this tendril thing.</p><p>And indeed, it soon reaches her mind but instead of a sudden burst of her thoughts rushing into my mind nothing happens. After a moment I notice that I can kind of hear her thoughts, though they’re barely a whisper in a busy room. That’s when I notice that instead of reaching into her mind like it usually would, the tendril only runs over the surface. <em>“This is exactly what happened when my mom was trying to break into my head.” </em></p><p>I decide to wait a little and see what happens. The little branch coming from my mind grows a little intertwined network around the barrier to protects my sisters mind. Though, unlike what my mom did, it never fully envelops Coilles mind, sticking mostly to the side that is in direct view of me.</p><p>But not much changes, I can hear her thoughts a little more clearly but it’s far from clear still. I decide that this is a good time to stop. I wouldn’t want to risk her thinking I’m some kind of intruder and her lashing out. <em>“Wouldn</em><em>’t stand a chance against her. Seeing how she so swiftly messed with both her brothers at the same time.” </em>I pinch myself a little and snap back into the real world. After a short bout of dizziness, I notice that Coille is staring at me.</p><p><strong><em>“Were you trying to mess with my mind sister?” </em></strong>She asks pointedly.</p><p>I reply with a slow nod. <em>“</em><em>So, you did notice? Though I wasn’t trying to mess with you, I was only curious to see what would happen if I made contact with your mind now and why it was so… opaque.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I sure did notice. You were right to be careful, if you had tried to force your way into my head I would have fought back.” </em></strong>She rests her head on my shoulder again.</p><p><em>“How did you know it was me though? Can you tell even through the barrier? And how would fighting back look like?” </em>I rest my head against her neck.</p><p><strong><em>“Yes, I can tell even through the barrier. Whenever someone’s mind touches mine it feels a little different. Think of it as a mental fingerprint of sorts. And I’m not quite sure how to describe the fighting back to you. I don’t often see others minds the way you do. For me it’s mostly subconscious.” </em></strong>She keeps thinking about it for a bit, sifting through her memories for an example.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I think it would be similar to how mom broke the barrier around your mind, just in reverse. First this branch like thing would push yours aside and then quickly envelop your mind for a counter attack. At least that’s how think it’d go. I’m sure mom or dad will teach you about it soon.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I silently nod and try to picture what she said in my mind, though I’m unsure how accurate it is.</p><p><strong><em>“Oh, mom’s coming back.” </em></strong>She turns her head and stares at some point of the sky.</p><p>I shut my eyes and try to sense Skaftás mind. She’s still quite a ways away but seems to be rapidly coming closer. Just a minute later I hear her land next to the grove. <strong><em>“Time to head home little ones.” </em></strong>Her voice rumbles through my head.</p><p>Coille and I remove ourselves from our embrace and I quickly throw my backpack onto my back, place the quiver next to it and grab the bow, then run over to her.</p><p>In her jaws she carries what seems to be a boar, presumably that’ll be my dinner. I stop next to her and wait for her to lift me onto her back where my sister had already lain down.</p><p><strong><em>“Good to see you two did as I said and didn’t get hurt.”  </em></strong>Mom quickly picks me up and places me on her back as well. <strong><em>“Though you did zone out and </em></strong><strong><em>did some things I can’t condone. For now, please only do these things when one of us is around.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod solemnly, I had heard that warning before. <strong><em>“Though I can’t be too upset with you, you kept close to your </em></strong><strong><em>sister, so the risk was pretty minimal.” </em></strong></p><p>She leaps into the air and spreads her wings, within seconds we’re soaring through the sky, but I don’t feel any wind. <em>“Must be moms doing.” </em>I think to myself. <em>“Thanks for looking out of me.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“No problem little one.” </em></strong>She replies warmly.</p><p>Coille crawls a little closer to me and hides behind my back, probably seeking shelter from the wind as well.</p><p>The half an hour flight home passes rather quickly as I’m busy watching the snow coated world pass beneath us. The snow makes it quite obvious wherever a herd of animals travelled.</p><p>To pass the time even more quickly I try to find the longest continuous path that some animal left behind, though none continue for too long.</p><p>Eventually I notice the land abruptly stopping ahead of us, we have reached the cliffs.</p><p>I hold on tight as Skaftá dives down over the edge of the cliff and towards the ocean. Gravity tugs on me as she manoeuvres herself into the cave and moments later suddenly comes to a stop as she lands.</p><p>She carries us deeper into the cave and as we round the first corner Dad and my brothers come into view. Dorn and Aonar lie together in a tangled mess of limbs, fast asleep. Meanwhile Scáthán lies further back in the cave, watching us as we walk in. <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>Welcome back.” </em></strong>He greets us and raises his head a little.</p><p>Skaftá puts me back on the ground and Coille hops off her back as well. <em>“Hello dad.” </em>I smile and put my things down next to the makeshift bed. <strong><em>“I see the three of you have been rather productive today.” </em></strong>I can feel his presence in my mind grow as he has a peek at my recent memories.</p><p><em>“Well it was mostly mom doing all the hard work.” </em>I grab some wood to add to the fire, surprisingly there are quite a few glowing embers left still. <em>“Either that wood lasted way longer than it should </em><em>have, or someone added more during the day.” </em>My stomach grumbled loudly and sends a wave of discomfort through my body, fortunately dinner won’t be long. <strong><em>“As long as you both had fun, does it really matter who did the work?” </em></strong>He moves next to me lies down again. Skaftá, after having taken care of us all day has gone to rest with Coille at the opposite side of the cavern.</p><p><em>“I guess, it was fun after all.” </em>I peek into the pot to see the soup still looking like yesterday, then I drag the boar over to get to work on it. Before I can get too far with it though, I’m interrupted by Dorn suddenly appearing next to me. <strong><em>“Need help with that</em></strong><strong><em>?” </em></strong>He asks me and without waiting for a reply sinks his teeth into one of the legs. <em>“U</em><em>h…Sure.” </em>Together we quickly move it over to where I had set up for the night.</p><p><em>“Weren’t you asleep just now?” </em>I ask him as I sit down again. <strong><em>“Well yes, but when I s</em></strong><strong><em>ensed your return I woke up because I want to spend some time with you too.” </em></strong>He curls up next to me and rests his head on my lap. <em>“Sensed my return</em><em> huh?” </em>I’m not even surprised anymore.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Well not entirely, I initially noticed you from your smell, then as I was waking up, I could feel your mind.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Do I really smell that strongly?” </em>I lift one arm and take a whiff.</p><p><strong><em>“Not in that way sister. More like how a dog can smell its owner.” </em></strong>He sounds quite amused and nudges me playfully. <em>“Alright then.” </em>I reply leerily and reach for a knife to prepare my dinner.</p><p>While I’m busy cutting into the carcass, Scáthán lights the wood ablaze with a single breath</p><p>Once I cut out a piece for me, I put it aside for the moment, my hunger had grown so much, it’s making me feel dizzy.</p><p>Quickly, I fill a plate and blow on it to make it cool down faster. The moment it gets even slightly bearable to eat I scarf down the contents of the plate and then get me a second helping.</p><p><strong><em>“Careful there little one, wouldn’t want you to choke.” </em></strong>Scáthán reminds me, though he doesn’t sound concerned at all.</p><p><em>“It’s just soup, worst thing that’ll happen is a bit of coughing.” </em>I reply quickly.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Knowing your luck, you’ll get that one piece of solids floating around stuck in your throat anyway.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I roll my eyes and grumble. He has got a point.</p><p>I empty the second plate much more slowly and check the pot to see how much I have left over.</p><p>With only a few ladles full remaining I decide to empty it now and cook another meal for tomorrow right after.</p><p>With the pot and plate empty soon after I strip the skin off meat I had prepared before and chop it to pieces. <em>“</em><em>Oh, and I might also want to use up the last of that onion.” </em>It looks quite discoloured already but not yet mouldy.</p><p>I eye it suspicious and very carefully take a tiny bite. There’s no weird taste to it, the off colour probably just comes from oxygen oxidizing some stuff on its surface, a quick cut through it reveals relatively a normal looking inside. I decide to risk it and still use the stale onion.</p><p>After quickly chopping all of it up and throwing it into the pot I add some spices and let it cook for a while. <em>“Sure, hope this will turn out fine.” </em>I think to myself as I watch my food simmer.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You’ll most likely be fine, as you noticed it only turned stale. Once you cook it, you’ll be fine.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“If you say so dad.” </em>I reply and sit back.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong><em>“You need the rest of this?” </em></strong>Dorn asks while staring at the leftover boar.</p><p><em>“Don’t think I’ll be eating much if any of it.” </em>I chuckle as I imagine myself trying to somehow eat through the whole thing before it spoils. <em>“Go ahead and have at it if you want.” </em></p><p>He happily jumps up and tears into his second dinner, or at least I hope it is his second one.</p><p><strong><em>“Yes, I had already brought each of them something to eat before. They didn’t have to go hungry.” </em></strong>Scáthán assures me.</p><p>Once Dorn ate about a third of it, he suddenly stops and drags what’s left over to where Aonar sleeps. Dorn nudges his brother awake who after a moment of drowsy confusion happily tears into his second dinner. Then Dorn goes to wake up Coille who had been sleeping next to mom since we returned home. She too takes a moment to realise what he wants from her but then she too trots over to the carcass and starts munching away.</p><p>Dorn returns to my side and places his head in my lap once more.</p><p>I watch my siblings eat for a little bit, resume idly staring into the fire for a bit.</p><p><em>“How come you guys sleep so much right now by the way? Didn’t you say you don’t need a lot of sleep?” </em>I ask Scáthán as I let my eyes wander about the cave.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We don’t have to sleep a lot but often we choose to sleep more to conserve energy. Especially as the weather gets colder, we tend to sleep more which is what you’re seeing right now. Also raising offspring still takes some energy, especially until they can reliably hunt on their own. Those two factors combined lead to what you’re seeing now.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I see, you two definitely have been putting in a lot of extra work for them and me.” </em>I think back to how they made a whole set of kitchenware for me, a bow with arrows and a quiver and how they’ve kept me warm even as temperatures keep falling.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Really the biggest factor is having to hunt more to feed all of us, you barely register in the grand scheme of things.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I smile and pet Dorns head. <em>“I’m sure I don’t.” </em></p><p>My eyes fall on the femur that mom had brought me yesterday. <em>“Al</em><em>so need to get to work on that.” </em>I try to reach for it but its just outside of my reach. Gently, I push against Dorns head to get him to move. He almost begrudgingly does so but only for long enough for me to grab the bone. The moment I return to my previous spot he’s right back with his head on my lap.</p><p>I turn the bone and run my fingers over it, turning this one into anything useful was going to be a chore as well. If I could even do anything with it with my current tools.</p><p><strong><em>“May I help you with that?”</em></strong> Dad asks me.</p><p>I hem and think about my options for a bit. <em>“Sure </em><em>thing, don’t think I can do anything with this right now.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Alright, then what do you want to turn this into? You’ve been thinking of needles to do some sewing if needed, anything else?” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I furrow my eyebrows as I rack my brain as I try to come up with anything useful one can make from bones.</p><p>After some time, a few ideas pop into my head. <em>“An awl would be great and maybe a comb if it isn’t too c</em><em>omplicated…and that’s all I can come up with.” </em>I rest the femur flat on my palms and hold it out towards him so he can get to work on it.</p><p>He slowly raises his head a little and nods. <strong><em>“Hold still then.” </em></strong>I can sense him focus and his eyes begin to glow a little.</p><p>For a moment nothing happens, then suddenly the surface of the bone seems to liquefy. From the puddle of liquid bone, a blob rises into the air, leaving the marrow beneath exposed. The blob vibrates a little and slowly changes shape into a comb. After a few moments it slowly sinks towards the ground. I almost go to grab it right away but then remind myself that dad isn’t done with his spell yet, so I better keep still.</p><p>Right as I look back at the bone, I see another big blob rise from it, this one quickly turns into an awl and sinks to the ground as well.</p><p>Lastly a handful of small droplets rise all at the same time, each one morphing into a needle of slightly different size.</p><p>Finally, Scátháns eyes stop glowing and he smiles. <strong><em>“That’s it.” </em></strong></p><p>I place the bone by my side and pick up the things he just made for me.</p><p>The needles and awl are surprisingly light but appear to be quite sturdy, I’ll hopefully be getting plenty of use out of them. The comb feels pretty nice too, bone appears to make a pretty good material for these as it’s hard but still a bit flexible.</p><p><em>“Thank you, dad.” </em>I smile warmly at him. <em>“Let’s see how this comb fares…I’m long overdue for any kind of hair brushing.” </em></p><p>I grab a bunch of hair and place it over my shoulder so I can see what I’m doing. Then try to get the comb through the ends of it. Almost immediately it catches in a rat’s nest of knots and split ends. <em>“Fun times.” </em>I grumble and wiggle the comb out again. Painstakingly and slowly I manage to get through the tips of my hair, at some points it feels like my hair is beyond saving but somehow, I still manage to get through even the worst parts of it. With every stroke I rip out a bunch of hairs and before long, my scalp feels like it’s on fire, but I keep powering through the pain. The longer I wait the worse it’ll get. By the time I actually get to combing through the top of my hair I’m gritting my teeth every time it catches on anything.</p><p>Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I manage to run the comb from the top of my head, all the way to the bottom without it catching on anything.</p><p>With a sigh of relief, I repeat the motion a few more times and a smile grows on my lips. <em>“It is done.” </em>I think to myself and put the comb down. As I try to open my hand, I notice just how cramped it had gotten.</p><p><strong><em>“Why do you humans even have this stuff on your head? Just looks like a pain to take care of.” </em></strong>Dorn asks me as he inspects the pile of hair I ripped out. <em>“Some kind of leftover from when we were just </em><em>monkeys, I think.” </em>I carefully scratch my head and almost immediately flinch from the pain.</p><p>
  <em>“But it’s really not that bad when you don’t neglect it for over a month.”</em>
</p><p>I lump up the hair and pin it under a rock to keep it from getting blow away. I’ll have to bury it or something, since burning would be a really bad idea.</p><p>Then, I gather some more wood so I can keep the fire alive for the night.</p><p>Once I’ve settled down again, I cosy up against Dorn. He all too happily curls up around me and places one wing atop of me. I smile contently and reach out to pet his head. <em>“</em><em>So, what shenanigans have you been up to today?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Not much, dad mostly let us play.” </em></strong>Some images of him and Aonar bouncing around the cave seep into my mind. <strong><em>“And we got to hunt on our own twice today. Well mostly on our own anyway.” </em></strong></p><p>A few memories of the usual hunting spiel briefly appear in my head. <strong><em>“All in all, nothing new but I had fun.” </em></strong>He rests his head on his wing, in front of me. <strong><em>“But enough about me. I saw you had quite the exciting day as well.” </em></strong></p><p>I smile and chuckle. <em>“You could call it that indeed. I’m quite looking fo</em><em>rward to trying out the bow some more.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Hopefully we can hunt together soon.” </em></strong>Dorn grins widely and I can sense him fantasising.</p><p>
  <em>“But only once I’ve got some confidence in my aim. Besides, how do you imagine that working? Don’t your hunts already only last seconds?”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Not quite yet, and I think we’ll be able to hunt down more prey together. You can dispatch the ones that get away from afar. Or if the herd tries to split you can shoot down the weaker group.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I pat his head and shake my head a little. <em>“You sure have a lot of plans for me huh?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“If you were to ask me, I’d take you with me everywhere. But right now, that’s just not feasible.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>He shoots me an endearing look. <strong><em>“But give it a few more months, when my scales are thick e</em></strong><strong><em>nough to be immune to your arrows, when I can carry you to the skies, when you’ve gotten the hang of hunting. Then the real fun will begin.” </em></strong>My face turns the slightest hue of red. <em>“Heh, I hope you’re right.” </em></p><p>He smiles and rubs his head against mine. <strong><em>“I’m sure” </em></strong>With his head beside mine he shuts his eyes and before long he enters a half sleep like state.</p><p><em>“I wish I could be as optimistic as him…” </em>I think to myself and pull my legs under his wing to keep them warm. <em>“But maybe, just maybe some of those things may come true eventually.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Some of those things are more attainable than you think Arya.” </em></strong>I had almost forgotten about Scáthán and jump a little as his voice snaps me out of my thoughts.</p><p><strong><em>“You might not notice your growth but from an outside perspective it’s hard to miss.” </em></strong>He pauses for a moment and moves his head such that it lies in front of me. <strong><em>“Let me show you.” </em></strong></p><p>I close my eyes in anticipation of him projecting some of his memories into my head.</p><p>As expected, even though my eyes are closed a blurry picture starts appearing in front of my eyes. It quickly grows clearer and clearer and before long I can see myself sleeping in the nest they had built back then. I look emaciated and weak and spend most of the day sleeping. The hours I spend awake I’m quite skittish and scared, jumping at nearly every noise.</p><p>The image turns blurry again and begins shifting. When it clears up again, I see myself getting carried into a familiar looking cave by Skaftá. I have a hunch this memory is from today.</p><p>I look a lot less haggard, in fact I think I’m quite a bit more broad-shouldered, my cheeks are less sunken, and my eyes aren’t as tired. I’m not nearly as jumpy as I was back then, I almost seem self-confident.</p><p>The memory fades and I open my eyes again. <em>“I mean if you put it like that, I can’t deny it. But just because I’m physically in better shape doesn’t me</em><em>an any of what Dorn talked about has a higher chance of coming true. The fitter I get, the harder it becomes to improve further.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You’re don’t need more muscle to hunt little one. If anything, today showed that you’re more than deadly enough with the bow and arrow. The rest is technique.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Fair point… Though it’s not quite fair to compare todays me with me right after you adopted me. I hadn’t been able to sleep from fear for so long I was on the border of going insane.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“But it showcases another way you grew. You trust us a lot more than you did back then. I can’t fault you for all the fear you felt back then, anyone else in your position would have felt the same.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I take a moment to think. <em>“You’ve got a point. Growth is multidimensional.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“And I’m sure, with time, you’ll keep growing in one way or another.” </em></strong>He blinks slowly and smiles. <strong><em>“I believ</em></strong><strong><em>e in you.” </em></strong></p><p>The moment he speaks those words I feel time stop and while I haven’t quite realised what just happened it quickly dawns on me. <em>“Y-You’re the first one to say that to me.” </em>I stutter and feel my face heating up rapidly. <strong><em>“And I mean it.” </em></strong>He replies with a wide smile.</p><p>I feel my heart sink and tears well up in my eyes. <em>“Thank you.” </em>I sniffle and wipe the tears from my eyes as I try to regain my composure.</p><p><em>“I didn’t know words could hit like that.” </em>I quietly think to myself after a few moments.</p><p>I take a couple of deep breaths. <em>“I can not put into words how that just made me feel. </em><em>I really appreciate it.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“We love you like one of our own Arya.” </em></strong>Scáthán says with an unusual warmth to his voice.</p><p>Immediately I feel the tears in my eyes again and my head spins.</p><p>Dorn, probably awoken by my emotional turmoil, suddenly lifts his head and stares at me too. <strong><em>“Yes sister, we love you like one of us.” </em></strong>He gently licks my cheek.</p><p><em>“You’re going to make me cry.” </em>I whimper, though the tears I shed are ones of happiness.</p><p><em>“No one has ever been so nice to me. How do I deserve this?” </em>I’m glad I don’t need to speak these words out loud. They would have been unintelligible otherwise.</p><p><strong><em>“It was about time then. No one should have to go for their entire life without having a single nice word said to them.” </em></strong>Scáthán replies.</p><p>I can’t contain the tears anymore and just them flow.</p><p>My crying wakes Skaftá up, she’s worried at first, but her concern quickly disappears.</p><p>She quickly comes over and joins us, Coille and Aonar following not long after.</p><p>With all of them watching me I’m starting to feel embarrassed and hide my face in my palms, though it doesn’t help supress the tears.</p><p><strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>It’s okay Arya. No need to be embarrassed</em></strong><strong><em>.” </em></strong>I feel Skaftás tail slide onto my shoulder.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s best if you get it all out now.” </em></strong>Scáthán adds as he too places his tail on my shoulder.</p><p>I wish I could reply but right now I can’t form as much as a single sentence.</p><p>Eventually the dears stop flowing, leaving just dry streaks of salt on my face.</p><p><em>“T-Thank you all so much.” </em>I take a deep breath and sigh. <strong><em>“You’re welcome little one.” </em></strong>Mom and dad reply in unison and Dorn pulls me in a little closer. While I was busy crying, Coille must have curled up at my feet.</p><p>Now that my head clears up again, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I let my head fall back onto my brothers back.</p><p><em>“That felt good to get out…” </em>With another deep breath I lift my head up again. <em>“I don’t think I can thank any one of you enough.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“There’s no need for words when we can sense your feelings.” </em></strong>Scáthán grins a little.</p><p>I nod slowly and yawn. With things calming down, I’m starting to feel quite tired.</p><p><strong><em>“Bedtime?” </em></strong>Dorn asks me. He too looks quite tired and seeing how he was half asleep before he probably would prefer to sleep sooner rather than later.</p><p><em>“Bedtime.” </em>I reply and cosy up to him. He happily places his head on my shoulder again and shuts his eyes.</p><p>I slowly look from mom, to dad, to my sister and brother. <em>“Good night everyone.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Good night little ones.” </em></strong>My parents reply as they curl up around us.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>I get myself comfortable too and close my eyes and not much later drift off to sleep.</p><p>While I fall asleep, expecting to only wake up once the next day had begun, I won’t be so lucky this time.</p><p>At some point, in the middle of the night I’m ripped out of my dreams by feelings of burning.</p><p>As I open my eyes, I notice that my face feels numb but also like it’s burning at the same time. I try to turn my head but my neck barely cooperates. When I place my hands on my cheeks, I notice that they’re cold as ice. <em>“Again huh?”</em> I think as I try to come up with a way to keep the cold away.</p><p>Fortunately, Scáthán must have noticed as I suddenly find him staring at me. <strong><em>“Need some help?” </em></strong>He asks drowsily.</p><p>I attempt to nod but my head barely moves. Still, he knows what I meant to do and his eyes begin to glow. Seconds later, I feel my whole body warm up slowly.</p><p>My face begins to tingle as it thaws and a few minutes later I can move my head freely again. <em>“Praise telepathy.” </em>I smile happily and give him a nod of appreciation before trying to go to sleep again. <em>“Will you maintain this spell until morning?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I probably will.” </em></strong>He replies.</p><p><em>“Oh…So no sleep for you? Will you be alright?” </em>I’m starting to feel a little bad for making him stay up.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We talked about it before. I can get away with little to no sleep for a long time. I’ll be fine.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>He shifts around a little. <strong><em>“Just go to sleep little one. Yo</em></strong><strong><em>u need it.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Alright.” </em>I mumble and shut my eyes again, drifting back off to sleep not much later.</p><p>With the spell keeping me warm, I sleep through the rest of the night with no further incident.</p><p>Eventually I wake up once more, it’s already light outside and mom appears to have gotten up.</p><p>Dorn and Coille are still asleep though, so I stay put for now. <strong><em>“Good morning Arya.” </em></strong>Scáthán greets me, he doesn’t sound like staying up affected him at all.</p><p><em>“Morning dad. Are you feeling alright?” </em>I yawn and stretch a little.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>“Feeling quite well, thank you for asking.” </em></strong>He smiles warmly and I notice that his eyes are still glowing dimly.</p><p><em>“I think you can cut off the spell now. Or at least I hope I’ll be fine.” </em>Just to be sure I carefully pull Dorns wing a little further up to my chin.</p><p>Moments later I feel something change, I can’t tell immediately what changed though. I furrow my eyebrows and hold my arm up into the air. Only as some time passes, I notice that what I was feeling is the cold slowly creeping back in, though it’s not nearly as cold as it was at night.</p><p>Dorn wakes up not much later and let’s go off me for some stretches. I use my newfound freedom to stretch a little too. As I try to get up, I notice my arms feeling sore. <em>“This is probably payback for going a bit too far with the bow yesterday.” </em>I power through the pain and afterwards quickly grab some wood to make a fire and heat up my breakfast.</p><p>While I assemble a little campfire, my siblings and mom get ready to leave for the day. Right as I look over to them, pondering if I should follow, dad interrupts my thoughts, asking me to stay behind for today. Both to recover and do some more training for my mind.</p><p>I want to object at first but then I remember the cold outside and my sore arms and decide that it is indeed the better choice to stay behind.</p><p> </p><p>I watch my siblings leave and then return my attention to my breakfast. Scáthán had already lit the fire for me so all I have to do is move the pot into it and wait.</p><p>Once I had something to eat, I clean the pot out once again, though this time a quick water rinse does the trick. Afterwards I hang it into the fire for a bit again to drive off the water.</p><p>The rest of the day almost seems to fly by as well while I alternate between resting and training my mental barrier and honing my ability to control my mind.</p><p>All the while I keep a close eye on how Dad behaves, looking for any signs of tiredness. But there’s nothing to be seen. <em>“So, he wasn’t exaggerating when he said he doesn’t need a lot of sleep.” </em></p><p>Not much later, the sun begins to set, and mum and siblings return.</p><p>Dorn brought some food for me back while Skaftá carries in the dinner for my dad. While I go to cook my meal, mom, Coille and Aonar go to sleep already. Their day had been quite tiring as Dorn shows me while I wait for dinner to finish cooking.</p><p>The three of us spend a little bit more time just relaxing together before ultimately going to sleep as well.</p><p>This time I manage to sleep through the night uninterrupted though I do come close to waking up from the cold at some point. Scáthán noticed early enough though and warms me up again before anything happens.</p><p>The next day ends up being more of the same. I stay behind with mom while dad and my siblings go out for the day. They return some time around sunset and I spend the time sharpening my mind. Dorn brings me something to eat and helps me cook, after I had dinner, we both lie together for a bit before going to sleep. Then, as the temperatures drop during the night Scáthán again intervenes and keeps me warm until I wake up.</p><p>This becomes something of the status quo for quite a while. Though I do end up going out every now and then, I spend the majority of my days in the cave. Not that I mind too much, it’s quite a harsh winter and after the first week there’s a good foot(30cm) of snow on the ground.</p><p>As the days turn into weeks, I start growing a little more concerned about my parents near non-existent sleep because they need to keep me warm. I try to think of a solution to the problem but can’t really come up with a good solution. It kind of helps that Dorn is rapidly growing and by the second week can pretty easily blanket me with just a single wing. Scáthán and Skaftá had been helping out too by putting their wings over us too but still it tends to get incredibly cold especially during the windier nights.</p><p>As the weeks come to pass and my parents show no signs of the little sleep bothering them, I start pushing my concerns to the wayside more and more though they do keep surfacing every now and then.</p><p>In the meantime, I’ve gotten to the point where I can almost passively perceive the minds of my siblings and parents. Dorn’s mind in particular seems to have almost joined with mine.</p><p>My mental barrier had gotten a fair bit stronger as well. Still no match for my parents but it could hold up for a bit against my brothers. Coille still breaks through it with little effort though.</p><p>I had also gotten a lot better with the bow, while I had only shot at illusions conjured by my parents, I could hit my mark almost every time now even though I committed to shots much quicker now.</p><p>All in all, things are pretty great, and I am looking forward to the spring when I could actually get to hunt myself once the snow melted.</p><p>Until then I’m content with just continuing life like this.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. One Cold Day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>One late evening I’m sitting at the fire, watching my food slowly simmer away over the flames. It had been a day like any other, albeit a little on the colder side. Dad and two of my siblings had already gone to sleep and it was only Dorn, Mom and me sitting at the fire.</p><p>A gust of wind blows into the cave and sends a shiver down my spine. It feels like I just walked into a freezer. Dorn quickly moves a little closer and puts his wing around me. By now his shoulders are as tall as me when sitting down. <em>“Thanks brother.” </em>I snuggle up against him and carefully pull his wing a little tighter around me. <em>“Feels like another storm is coming through.” </em>I note as I feel the cold air continue flowing around me feet.</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, it has been brewing for a couple days now. Tonight, is probably going to be the worst of it. I’ve never seen weather like this this far south.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies and lies down behind us, blocking the wind from reaching us.</p><p>
  <em>“I see, we’re having a once a century kind of thing then? Actually, once a millennium.”</em>
</p><p>He doesn’t reply but I can sense him agreeing with me.</p><p><em>“That’s just my luck it seems.” </em>I chuckle and stir my dinner. <em>“Luckily it doesn’t matter much. Though I can’t help but wish there was a solution that didn’t involve magic.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Well, in some ways magic is a more desirable solution. Doesn’t need any resources outside of energy and it can’t break. Besides, it’ll be warming up in the coming weeks. The worst of it should be over by now.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies.</p><p><em>“I can only hope so.” </em>I idly think while I stare into the flames.</p><p>Soon I deem my food done and quickly chow through two plates.</p><p>Feeling full enough for now I lean against my brother and we get ready to sleep soon.</p><p>Right as I get comfortable and ready to fall asleep, a gust of wind blows into the cave. <em>“It’s shaping up to be another cold one.” </em>I peer over at my mom and smile. At least I didn’t have to worry about being cold anymore for a while now.</p><p>Not much later I drift off to sleep. Though unlike normal, this time my sleep is rather light, and I feel myself drifting in and out several times.</p><p>Sometime, around what I presume to be midnight, I suddenly snap awake. After a short moment of confusion, I realize what happened and stretch. Somehow, I don’t feel tired at all.</p><p>As I’m looking around, I notice my mom’s mind appearing rather active and when I look at her, I notice a pair of glowing eyes hovering in the air. <em>“Hi mom.” </em>I quietly greet her, unsure of what to do.</p><p>While I can’t see it, I can sense her smiling in response. The pair of glowing eyes drops lower and lower until they rest on the ground just a few feet away. It’s quite interesting to see that her eyes are bright enough to be easily noticeable but at the same time too dim to let me see anything else.</p><p>I try to lie down again and close my eyes but really all it achieves is blocking out the miniscule glow from mom’s eyes.</p><p><strong><em>“Trouble sleeping huh?” </em></strong>Skaftá asks after a few minutes passed.</p><p>“Mhm.” I grumble idly and sit up again. <em>“It’ll probably be a while before I can sleep again.” </em></p><p>I stare into the darkness for a bit, but nothing changes. I’m not quite sure what else I expected though.</p><p>At some point, Dorn starts waking up too. <strong><em>“What’s the matter sister.” </em></strong>He asks me semi sleepily.</p><p><em>“If only I knew. Seems my brain just decided that this is a good time to be awake and that I don’t need more sleep.” </em>I sigh and get up. <em>“Might as well make a little fire to make mom waste less energy.” </em>I think to myself while I gather a few small pieces of wood and place them on the ashes of the previous fire.</p><p>Skaftá is quick to light it, her fiery breath lighting the whole cave up for just a moment.</p><p>As soon as the fire is lit her eyes stop glowing and I suddenly feel the cold on my back again. Not that I care too much for now. I can just cosy up to my brother and stay warm that way.</p><p>He all too happily indulges my idea and wraps himself around me.</p><p><em>“And now we wait.” </em>I think to myself and begin slowly petting his head. Eventually I’d hopefully fall asleep again.</p><p>Time passes slowly while I alternate between staring into the flames and closing my eyes but I’m still not feeling tired. Before long the fire begins to run out of fuel and the cold begins creeping in wherever it can. I consider getting up for a moment but right as I do, I feel warm again all the sudden. <em>“Thanks mom.” </em>I say to Skaftá without even bothering to check. She replies with an amused grumble.</p><p>Some more time passes with nothing happening and still I’m wide awake. I start getting frustrated and thinking of ways to get myself to sleep. I had already tried counting sheep, or anything really. That didn’t work at all. <strong><em>“It’s going to be one of those night huh?” </em></strong>My brother asks me, seemingly out of nowhere.</p><p><em>“I think it’s shaping up to be. But how did you… Oh right you and I share our memories.” </em>I can sense his bemusement as he wraps around me a little more tightly. <strong><em>“It’ll be alright sister. There’s no need to get up at a specific time anyway.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly and resume my idle thoughts.</p><p>Inevitably, my thoughts remind me of mom keeping me warm and our conversation about how magic is the most desirable solution. I can’t help but wonder what other solutions they had considered. <em>“I know they used to use their tails while it was still warmer. In combination with their wings that did the trick during autumn. But she also used the plural of solutions, so what else did they consider.” </em>I think for a moment. <em>“Oh, right the blanket, that worked pretty well till it went below freezing. Maybe they also thought about gathering the resources for a tent, or just a thicker blanket?” </em>As I think more and more about it, I begin to wonder what they really considered and not just what I think they might have thought about.</p><p>As usual, mom answers my thoughts without me having to even formulate a question.</p><p><strong><em>“You got most things right. We did think of building you a tent or more blankets but came to realise that those won’t help when it would get even colder. We didn’t think it would but just on the off chance it did we discarded those ideas. Then we also considered keeping you warm the same way we kept our eggs warm but didn’t go through with that for obvious reasons.” </em></strong>She pauses briefly. <strong><em>“Then there was making a bigger fire but at these temperatures the fire needed would be so large we’d be using up way too much wood to be feasible. And that’s just about it.” </em></strong></p><p>From the way she spoke the last sentence I get a feeling she isn’t listing everything just yet. Another closer look at her mind doesn’t quite reaffirm my suspicion but I decide to pry a little more.</p><p>
  <em>“Sounds like there was at least one more candidate.” </em>
</p><p>She takes an uncharacteristically long pause, making all the more curious. <strong><em>“Well we did also consider moving elsewhere but it fell through for the same reasons as making a larger fire did.”</em></strong></p><p>Her answer sounds more convincing this time but the long pause before leaves me wondering still.</p><p><em>“I see.” </em>I reply and keep staring at her.</p><p><strong><em>“Has it ever crossed your mind that there might be things you wouldn’t want to hear about?” </em></strong>She sounds almost angry with me.</p><p>Her reply leaves me shocked, I feel like I messed up by prying too much. <em>“Oh, uh, uhm.” </em>I stutter. <em>“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” </em>In my flustered state I completely disregard the implications of what she just said.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No, no, don’t worry. I really shouldn’t be keeping things from you. After all, what basis of trust is this if we’re telling you everything?” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod slowly and feel a knot form in my stomach. I have a foreboding feeling of something bad happening soon, I don’t have a clue what though.</p><p>Her expression changes, she looks very serious all the sudden. <strong><em>“Alright. I hope you’re ready.” </em></strong>She closes her eyes for a moment, then stares at me with an earnest look.</p><p>I feel my lips form a slight frown but then force myself to nod. I can’t decline now, if I did this would keep bothering me to the end of my days.</p><p>Skaftá stays silent just long enough that I start wondering if she’s ever going to speak.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“The last thing we considered was either keeping you inside our mouths for the night or swallowing you outright.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I feel my heart drop. Suddenly I feel sick, hot and cold all at once. I had a feeling that this would be coming but hearing her speak these words hit much harder than expected.</p><p>My mouth fills with the taste of bile as I struggle to keep my dinner down. I feel Skaftá watch my mind from the outside with growing concern, but she knows she better not try and intervene right now.</p><p>A couple minutes of tense silence pass while I try to get my thoughts under control again.</p><p>Once I feel in control of myself again, I slowly open my eyes and raise my head to lock eyes with mom again. It doesn’t appear like she ever took hers off me. Her expression is entirely unchanged.</p><p><em>“I see.” </em>I try to swallow but my mouth is completely dry. <em>“I see what you meant when you said some things better stay unspoken.” </em>I take another deep breath to try and keep myself as calm as I can. <em>“But how much did you consider it? Was it just an idle thought or an actual consideration? If you did think more about it, why did you? Also, it’s making me doubt those offhand comments about eating me were actually offhanded and not some kind of hint.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It was just an idle thought.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies and I feel a little relief. <strong><em>“At first. It kept coming up between me and dad a few times more. But there was a reason for it.” </em></strong></p><p>My relief is rather short lived as the sickness makes an even stronger return and I feel my head spin. <em>“What reason could there possibly be?” </em>I’m feeling very insecure all the sudden and find myself looking for an escape route.</p><p><strong><em>“There’s something in your past that you like to suppress. It has come up a few times since you’ve been with us. You’ve felt it as a slight tingle in your gut.” </em></strong>Her voice has taken on a calm and collected tone.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I know you don’t want to dig these things up. But to understand why we would even consider something so obviously insane you need to stop hiding it in the dark recesses of your mind.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>My panic remains and I still feel the urge to jump up and run but now there’s a spark of curiosity as well. Did she really say there’s something in ME that gave them the idea? What could it possibly be?</p><p>Knowing that running will only get me hurt I decide to try my best and ignore my instincts and dive into the dark abyss that is my past. While I still fear what lurks there, I’ve still got my brother by my side. He hasn’t been involved in my parents’ shenanigans and has pulled me out of nightmares before so even if I get overwhelmed, he’ll hopefully be there for me.</p><p>And with that I close my eyes again and jump into the darkness of my memories.</p><p>There’s so many of them. The moment I remember anything from my teenage years so many terrible things come flooding back it. It’s like a dam had broken while I was standing at its bottom and now the whole basin was crashing into me.</p><p>But all that mental training comes in handy. While I would have easily been swept away by the memories of my father’s abuse, I can just barely hold on now.</p><p>My face twists into a fierce grimace as I feel all the hatred and anger well back up. Subconsciously I clench my fists.</p><p>But these memories weren’t what I came here for.</p><p>As soon as I get some kind of grip on the situation again, I begin sifting through my memories, looking for what my mom was talking about.</p><p><em>“It has to be around here somewhere.” </em>I think to myself. <em>“What hints do I have?” </em>I ask myself.</p><p><em>“Something about getting eaten.” </em>I quickly run through my early childhood and early teens, hoping that whatever it is I’m looking for lies before my graduation. I don’t feel ready to face those memories yet.</p><p>Much to my relief I do wind up with a few memories that kind of look like what I’m looking for.</p><p>There were the times when I had nightmares of night terrors in the form of my father which were torn to shreds by my imaginary dragon friends, illusions of my father that got eaten alive and a few more. But recalling these moments I can’t remember feeling anything close to what I felt when mom or dad <em>“joked” </em>about eating me, on accident or not.</p><p>I furrow my eyebrows and keep searching.</p><p>But my search returns nothing, never had I thought about getting eaten or anything like that. Only those nightmares fit the bill.</p><p>Did mom lie? Did I forget about it? Are the memories she talked about lost to the ether?</p><p>I’m starting to grow more and more frustrated. They made me feel like I had finally found someone I would be safe around. How could they do this to me?</p><p>How could I forget something that is apparently so deeply entrenched in my person that it comes back at the sheer mention of getting eaten?</p><p>Suddenly, as I’m trying to recall all the books I had read, my thoughts freeze.</p><p>A memory that I had previously missed completely has abruptly resurfaced.</p><p>I had tried to forget about it so much I managed to convince myself that it was actually gone.</p><p><em>“Oh god.” </em>I sigh and force myself to breathe slowly as hot and cold shivers run down my back.</p><p><em>“I am almost certain this is what she’s talking about.” </em>I brace myself and start reliving that one day.</p><p>I’m around fourteen and it had been a pretty normal day. I had left home early. The school day had come to pass and now it was my time to hide my nose in books until the library closed.</p><p>I’m idly browsing the shelves, skimming the spines of the books until something catches my attention. Eventually my eyes get stuck on a book that’s rated for mature readers. <em>“Oh, someone messed up sorting books away again huh?” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>The library did have a separate section for books unsuitable for children and teenagers but sometimes a few would end up in the normal sections. I had seen a few before and snuck a look out of curiosity. They all turned out pretty samey though, very sexual, perverted or gory, nothing I cared much about, so I often just handed them to the librarian to put them back where they belonged.</p><p>He usually seemed embarrassed and apologized as he quickly took them from me.</p><p>I figure I haven’t found anything interesting yet so I might as well hand this to him now and continue browsing. <br/>I quickly nab it from the shelf and decide to read the title a little more closely, trying to gleam what kind of book it could be.</p><p>“A list of sexual fetishes and anomalies and their symptoms – Fifth edition” The title reads.</p><p><em>“Fetishes huh?” </em>I had heard that word before and wondered what these things would be like. Sadly, the bits of sex ed we had a while ago didn’t really talk about it at all, though that’s probably more because this isn’t a topic for teens.</p><p>I furtively look around to see if anyone had seen me pick the book up and then quickly flip it open. I wanted to know what kind of things sexual deviants could possibly derive pleasure from.</p><p>Every entry I read leaves me with a feeling of confusion and bewilderment. Why would leather clothing evoke pleasure in someone? Or getting hit with a whip? The more I read the more I begin to think that there’s nothing someone can’t get off on.</p><p>Though none of the entries rouse anything in me, then again until now nothing did, ever.</p><p>Before long I’m approaching the end as I begin skimming the pages more and more.</p><p>Finally, as I’m about to just shut the book and try to forget about some of the things I read, I decide to look at one last one.</p><p>“Vorarephilia” The top of the page reads, there’s a bit about the etymology of the word. Something about consuming.</p><p>While I had read weird entries before, this one probably beats them all.</p><p>It poses that there’s a subset of people who get pleasure from the thought of getting eaten, preferably whole apparently.</p><p>I pause for a moment and stare at the page. <em>“How? Doesn’t this go against some of the most fundamental things about survival?” </em>I quickly read the rest of the entry, hoping that it mentions some potential mechanism by which this fetish arises.</p><p>
  <em>“Ultimate act of submission or dominance? I guess so… And trust? How does that make sense?” </em>
</p><p>I shake my head and slam the book shut. I decide it’s not worth trying to understand any of this and divert my thoughts onto other things as I head over to the librarian.</p><p>He quickly takes it from me like usual and hides it in his desk and I’m on my merry way.</p><p>But for the rest of the day I keep returning to that last entry I read, trying to wrap my head around it. And the more I think about it, the more I can feel… something.</p><p>I can only liken it to intrigue, there’s certainly nothing sexual about it like what the topic of the book might suggest.</p><p>As the day turns into noon, I still can’t quite peel my mind off what I had read. I’m starting to think there might be more to it as I’ve found passages from books I had read before, that either by coincidence or intentionally, touched upon vorarephilia territory rather intriguing.</p><p>The more I think about it, the more embarrassed I feel and by the end of the day I’ve decided I’ll just do my best to forget about this too and the events of the next few days greatly aid me in that effort, not in a good way though.</p><p>As the pictures from that memory fade and leave me sitting in darkness again I take a moment to process what I just remembered.</p><p>
  <em>“They must have found this when mom made first contact with me…They alluded to it to see my reaction, test how comfortable I had gotten with them…”</em>
</p><p>I’m not sure how to feel, I can understand why they did what they did but at the same time wished they had been more upfront with me about it.</p><p><strong><em>“We wanted to confront you with all this a while ago but from your initial reactions we figured you’d be in such strong denial that it’d go nowhere. I’m sorry we had to lie to you, we really hoped there’d be another way.” </em></strong>Skaftá says to me, her voice sounding rather conflicted. It definitely feels like she’s telling the truth.</p><p><em>“But why now? Why did you deem this the right moment? You could have just as easily placated me, and I would have believed you.” </em>I can still feel my heart beating fast and my cheeks burning.</p><p><strong><em>“I didn’t want to keep lying, I hated it every time but didn’t have much of a choice. It was between lying and having you freak out to the point where you might never fully trust us. I know those lies don’t make for a better foundation for trust to grow.” </em></strong>She looks down and averts her eyes, something she’s never done before.</p><p>I take a moment to think before I reply. <em>“I get where you’re coming from… It must have felt like a catch twenty-two. Remembering those times, you tested the waters so to speak I know you’re right. I would have been in such denial that I could somehow find getting eaten enjoyable that I might have actually tried to run away.” </em>She appears to relax and slowly turns her eyes up towards me again.</p><p><em>“Though I don’t know if I could go through with it still. I’ll need some time to think…” </em>We lock eyes.</p><p><strong><em>“I know. I don’t expect you to ever do anything like that, it was merely a thought we considered. We saw that memory and noticed some other things about you that made us sure that with time you might come around to the idea, but it was much too early to seriously consider it. That’s why we settled on a spell to keep you warm.” </em></strong>Skaftás voice sounds warm and comforting and she cracks a slight smile.</p><p><em>“I really do hope you’d never have forced that kind of thing unto me.” </em>With a couple deep breaths, I finally feel my body relax again.</p><p>With all the stress gone I’m suddenly feeling quite tired and I feel Dorn gently tug on my shirt. <strong><em>“You should go to sleep again sister.” </em></strong>He looks slightly concerned, probably because of all the emotional turmoil I went through.</p><p><em>“I probably should.” </em>I reply and pet his head. <em>“Don’t worry about me too much though, I’ve lived through worse.” </em>I lie down and he quickly wraps around me. <strong><em>“I know, doesn’t mean you have to keep reliving it though.” </em></strong>He gently licks my right cheek and nuzzles his head against mine.</p><p>I nod wordlessly and close my eyes, hoping to soon drift off to sleep.</p><p>But even though I feel I tired, I can’t. My thoughts are too agitated and show no signs of stopping.</p><p><em>“What a can of worms did I just open?” </em>I ask myself as my thoughts keep circling back to mom more or less offering to swallow me whole. And the more I think about it the more I’m starting to convince myself that this isn’t completely insane or the worst idea I ever had.</p><p><em>“But there are so many impossibilities about it. How would I breathe? How would I know it isn’t some sort of elaborate death trap?” </em>I remind myself.</p><p><em>“But then again they did mention that their stomachs completely shut down when not needed and they’ve allowed me to breathe underwater before so air shouldn’t pose a problem either.” </em>I purse my lips and hum. <em>“Though if they have to use a spell to let me breathe it’s not much of an improvement over the current situation. And that also doesn’t solve the trust issues…” </em></p><p>I try to shove those thoughts aside, but they come back not much later.</p><p>
  <em>“They’ve also not given me much of a reason to distrust them, at least when it comes to my safety. That’s never been an issue no matter when or where. Even if I would consider their means of keeping me safe a little untraditional at least.” </em>
</p><p>I keep thinking about it for a while longer.</p><p>With sleep still appearing completely out of the question I eventually decide to do something useful with my time at least and ask mom how they had planned on pulling the whole thing off.</p><p>I close my eyes and right as I’m about to reach out to her I’m starting to second guess myself. <em>“Do I really want to commit to this? Do I really want to hear the nitty gritty details of it?” </em>I grind my teeth and sigh. <em>“Fuck it. The cat’s out of the bag anyway. How much worse could it get.”</em></p><p>Once I’ve gathered all my courage I carefully reach out to mom. <em>“Oh…uhm mom…” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Yes, little one.” </em></strong>She replies after a short moment.</p><p><em>“I have a question. How did you two…uhm…” </em>My thoughts suddenly lock up and I can’t seem to find the words to continue.</p><p><strong><em>“How did the two of us?” </em></strong>She asks, seemingly already knowing what I was angling for.</p><p>Still words simply slip from my mind. I can feel my heart starting to race and panic rise within me.</p><p><strong><em>“Oh, I see what you were going to ask about. No need to be shy about it. I know you feel embarrassed about it, but we don’t judge.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies and while I can’t see her, I know she’s grinning.</p><p><strong><em>“You were mostly right about how we’d go about it. If you had doubts about the claims of our guts being a safe environment, just remember how I carried the eggs over here. They might be a bit more resilient than your body but even they couldn’t survive the aggressive conditions too long. And there wasn’t any visible damage to them either.” </em></strong>She gives me a moment and indeed what she says has a lot of merit. I remember being surprised that her eggs looked the same, if not cleaner than before when she regurgitated them. So that definitely wasn’t a problem.</p><p><strong><em>“We also wouldn’t need magic to let you breathe in there. Just like you we can simply swallow some air and that’s it. Should leave you with plenty breathing room for a night. I wouldn’t want to risk you staying in there for longer because even while no digestion is taking place, our saliva still contains enzymes that’ll very slowly brake things down. It’s far from deadly but with time it’ll lead to skin irritation for you.” </em></strong>She certainly makes it sound like they thought this through.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“And you won’t need to worry about getting cut by our teeth as there’s a spell keeping us from harming you with them and our throats won’t crush you either as you’ve seen us swallow things much larger than you with little issue.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“So, in short, if you were to swallow me it’d basically be like an extra tight water slide followed by a fleshy and probably slimy sleeping bag.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“That’s a pretty apt description I’d say.” </em></strong>Skaftá is clearly amused by my choice of words.</p><p><em>“You’re really making it sound not horrible I have to say.” </em>I find myself almost tempted to give it a shot but then there’s the trust issue still. I’d be completely at her mercy, even more so than I am right now.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I won’t blame you if you don’t want to go forward. No matter how hard you try you couldn’t make a rabbit sleep besides a wolf, much less have it walk into it’s wide-open maw willingly.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Well about that. You’ve already made one jump into my arrow.” </em>I reply warily.</p><p><strong><em>“True but that rabbit also wasn’t in control of its own body anymore, so it wasn’t voluntary to begin with. Do you feel like I’m making you say or do anything right now?” </em></strong>She replies so quickly I feel like she anticipated my reply.</p><p><em>“Okay, okay, I see what you’re getting at. And I don’t think you’ve ever really taken control away from me for quite a while. I’m very grateful for that.” </em>I try to think of anything else to take issue with, but I come up with nothing.</p><p>
  <em>“I wouldn’t call it a good idea yet but it’s not horrible either… Some part of me hates you for making me take this even slightly serious.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You don’t have to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with Arya. I know I can live without it. What you do with this knowledge is entirely up to you. Just know that you can always ask us for anything, and we’ll gladly oblige.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I chuckle and grin. <em>“I’m sure you’ll be all too glad to help me out.” </em>I shake my head and decide that with my questions answered I’d try to sleep again though I have a hunch I still won’t have any luck with that.</p><p>And indeed, it turns out I was right, but now instead of questions I’ve just got intrigue on my mind, though I keep second guessing myself about the safety of the whole ordeal.</p><p>Eventually I get bored of just lying around as I clearly won’t be catching any sleep still and decide to carefully remove myself form my brothers embrace. The only things I can see are a bunch of glowing embers and my mothers’ eyes, the rest is hidden by the darkness.</p><p>With every passing moment I’m more and more torn between going for it or not.</p><p>I hear Dorn shift next to me as he wakes up once again, whether it was because I moved, or he sensed my thoughts I don’t know.</p><p><strong><em>“Still unable to sleep sister?” </em></strong>I feel him look up at me. <em>“I feel like it’s just getting worse honestly.” </em>I reply with exhaustion in my voice.</p><p><strong><em>“I can tell.” </em></strong>He places paw on my legs. <strong><em>“Can I tell you something?” </em></strong>Dorn asks cautiously.</p><p><em>“Sure.” </em>I reply quickly and place my hand on his paw.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You should go for it. Let mom swallow you whole. I know how conflicted you feel about it. But trust me when I say it really is safe. I’ve been there. Just because I was in an egg doesn’t mean I couldn’t feel what was going on outside.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Immediately I feel my pulse rise and a distinct tightness settles into my chest. <em>“You think so?” </em>I press my lips together and look into moms’ eyes again. I’m sure she’s watching our thoughts very closely right now. <em>“I mean if you say it’s safe. You’re probably the most reliable source there is.” </em>I grasp his paw a little tight as I brace myself to ask Skaftá.</p><p>Minutes pass with my heart racing and me breathing slowly and deeply but I simply can’t get the words out. It’s as if my mouth is sewed shut but it’s also keeping me from thinking out loud.</p><p><strong><em>“Would it help if I came with you?” </em></strong>Dorns voice breaks through the paralysing silence in my head.</p><p><em>“What do you mean?” </em>I ask him incredulously. <strong><em>“Would it put you at ease if you wouldn’t be on your own in moms’ gut?”</em></strong></p><p>My jaw drops open just a little, I’m still convinced that only an insane person would consider climbing into a dragon’s maw and now my brother just nonchalantly offered to hop in with me?</p><p>I struggle to find words for a moment before finally stuttering a reply. <em>“Uhm. Er…uh. Yes? I think not being alone would help. Also, I guess it’d help since I don’t think mom would willingly put you in danger.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Neither would she put you in danger intentionally.” </em></strong>He places another paw on my leg and rubs his head against mine. <strong><em>“Shall we?” </em></strong>He asks me encouragingly.</p><p>Suddenly faced with a choice I begin to panic again. <em>“When did I sign up for this.” </em>I think to myself as I try to stop my thoughts from running in circles and attempt to objectively way my choices.</p><p>In the end the only thing in favour of letting mom devour me is that it would satiate my curiosity, but I also know that it’ll be very stressful to say the least and there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to sleep in there. Though there’s little chance I’ll get any sleep out here either.</p><p>I take a deep breath and hold it for a moment before loudly exhaling. <em>“You know what. Screw it, we’re doing it. I’m committing to this and there’s no pulling back. What’s the worst that can happen?” </em>I get onto my knees and then get up, Dorn quickly gets up too.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m proud of you sister. I know you can do this. And trust me it’s not all that bad.” </em></strong>He tries to encourage me but I’m too busy suppressing my instincts to notice.</p><p>
  <em>“Alright mom, I’m sure you’ve been listening in on our conversation, so you already know what’s I’m going to ask.”</em>
</p><p>Even through the darkness I can sense her smiling. <strong><em>“I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I can guess what you’re getting at.” </em></strong>I hear her whole body shift next to me, she’s probably getting herself into a better position.</p><p><strong><em>“Would you like some light?” </em></strong>She asks, sounding very serious all the sudden.</p><p><em>“Uhm. What would be the difference?” </em>I ask, not sure why she would ask.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“If I conjure a ball of light, you’d be able to see where you’re going, if not you’d be plunging yourself into the unknown. I’ll let you decide what you think will make it easier for you.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I hem and haw for a moment. <em>“I think I prefer being able to see where I’m going. Even if it’s just to prevent me from getting paranoid about Dorn somehow sneaking out and leaving me on my own.” </em></p><p>I sense Dorn wanting to object but he stays quiet in the end.</p><p>A moment later a small blue shapeless ball of light escapes from between Skaftás lips and hovers up some ten feet into the air. It lights up the surroundings in a ghostly pale light, making it feel like we’re in a graveyard during full moon. <em>“How befitting.” </em>I think to myself and lock eyes with mom again.</p><p><em>“I think I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” </em>I say to her quietly and slowly move my eyes to her lips.</p><p>She nods slowly and I can feel her closely watching my mind, looking for any signs of overwhelming panic. <strong><em>“If you ever feel overwhelmed don’t worry about having to notify me. I’ll be watching you like a hawk and as soon as I notice you wanting out, I’ll do just that.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“That’s reassuring.” </em>I want to thank her more for being so accommodating of me but right now my mind is too busy to talk much.</p><p>Her lips twitch once and a split second later she opens her maw wide. My eyes follow her upper jaw and my head slowly rises with it.</p><p>Once she has opened her jaws as wide as she can she appears to freeze in place, completely unmoving.</p><p>Until now my eyes had been locked onto her upper front teeth, but I know there’s more I need to face. <em>“Calm down, you’ve seen this plenty of times before. Hell, I’ve been in there a couple times before.” </em></p><p>I close my eyes and drop my head a little before opening them again. I find my eyes just about level with her gullet. I try to take a step forward, but my feet are glued to the ground.</p><p><strong><em>“Shall I go first sister?” </em></strong>Dorn asks, looking up at me.</p><p>I reply with a solemn nod, unable to take my eyes off Skaftás jaws.</p><p>Dorn fearlessly approaches his mothers’ mouth and after a brief pause hops over her front teeth and lands on her tongue. He turns his head around and locks eyes with me. <strong><em>“See it’s easy.” </em></strong>He smiles and lies down.</p><p><em>“If only I could be so fearless.” </em>I grit my teeth and vapour up my chest. <em>“Let’s do this.” </em>I take a single determined step, just a couple more and I’ll be next to my brother.</p><p>The second step already comes out much more slowly and precariously and the third and final is more of a shuffle than an actual step forward.</p><p>I’m standing with my shins almost against her scales, I take another good look into her maw and audibly swallow. I pinch myself to make sure this isn’t some wacky nightmare but no, this is definitely real. <em>“Time to go in…Oh but first.” </em>I strip off most of my clothes, so I don’t have to deal with the feeling of soaked fabric on my skin for the rest of the night.</p><p>I grimace and close my eyes before carefully leaning forward until I feel my hands make contact with her tongue. It feels just as rough, spongy and wet as I remembered it.</p><p>I carefully lean into it, then very slowly take one foot of the ground and move my leg past her teeth, then the other. I remain on all fours for a moment and take a deep breath, then very carefully let myself fall onto my side. <em>“The first step is done…” </em> With my eyes still closed I feel around for my brother and as soon as I feel his scales quickly pull myself close to him. He quickly wraps himself around me tightly. <strong><em>“It’s not that bad, is it?” </em></strong></p><p>I open my eyes just a bit again and see the barely lit cave just past the jagged edges of mom’s teeth. <em>“It’s not all bad for sure.” </em>I reply as I feel Skaftás tongue against my back, it’s certainly nice and warm in here. Though the wet and sort of slimy embrace of her tongue is something to get used to.</p><p>As we lie there in her wide-open maw, I feel the cold wind from outside blow over me, since I rid myself of most of my clothes and am almost completely covered in saliva it feels so much colder than normal.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“If you want to, we can call it quits here. I can simply shut my mouth let you two sleep in there. No need to push this any further if you don’t want to.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Hmmm.” </em>I consider her offer for a moment. <em>“No, I think there’s no point in stopping here. We should go all the way.” </em>I reply without thinking too much about it. If I did, I’d probably find nothing but doubt.</p><p><strong><em>“Feeling daring today, aren’t we?” </em></strong>Dorn asks me, sounding almost surprised.</p><p><em>“You give me the courage to get over my fears.” </em>I hug him tightly.</p><p>He murmurs happily and hugs me just as tightly, if it weren’t for the spell keeping me safe from his claws, they’d probably be tearing up my back right now.</p><p><strong><em>“You two feeling ready for the next step?” </em></strong>Skaftá asks us after a moment.</p><p>I bow my head just a tiny bit the cold is starting to get to me so some part of me can’t wait to finally feel the full embrace of her maw. <strong><em>“I’m ready too.” </em></strong>Dorn adds and moves us into the middle of her tongue.</p><p>Very gradually she shuts her mouth, I feel gravity shift and before long I see her upper teeth approaching the lower ones. I curl up into a tight ball, trying to keep my extremities as far away from her teeth as I can. And as they inch closer it soon starts getting darker and darker before finally her jaws shut and snuff out the light from outside. In the silence that follows I can hear every single heart beat and every single breath I take.</p><p>With us isolated from the outside the air in here quickly warms up and it gets somewhat comfortable, albeit humid, in moments.</p><p><em>“I can see why they considered this…” </em>I stretch out a little to see how much space the inside of her mouth actually offers.</p><p>It takes quite a while before my feet bump into her front teeth and I don’t dare stretch upwards much as I worry, I’d end up unexpectedly slipping down her throat.</p><p>Dorn stays mostly motionless and completely silent, just hugging me and keeping me company. But even that, I don’t think, I can thank him enough for.</p><p>Mom lets us spend quite some time like this, probably to let me get comfortable with the situation.</p><p>And indeed, it seems to be working, after some fifteen minutes I’m not feeling panicked anymore. It appears like my brain has come to accept that this isn’t actually dangerous.</p><p>Feeling courageous I decide that the time is ripe to push onwards. <em>“I think I’m ready.” </em>As I’m about to say the next sentence I feel the panic creep back in. <em>“Ready to be swallowed.” </em>I nearly stumble over my words as my thoughts begin to seize up again.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you sure?” </em></strong>Skaftá digs deeper. I want to reply with words but can only muster a nod.</p><p>I feel her head move upwards slowly, and eventually come to a stop again. I can only guess how far off the ground we are right now.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“This is your last chance for an easy out Arya. Everything past this will take a couple seconds to get you out.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“That’s fine by me. I have no plans of getting out before sunrise.” </em>I reply hastily, trying to drown out my instincts that are screaming at me to run.</p><p><strong><em>“Alright, brace yourself. Keep your arms close to yourself and your legs straight.” </em></strong>She warns me as her head begins to tilt backwards.</p><p>I hug my brother tightly and tense every last muscle in my legs to the point of them nearly cramping.</p><p>Gravity pulls me downwards more and more though her barbed tongue keeps us in place for a while longer. In these moments I’m thankful I can’t see right now.</p><p>Before long it feels like we’re almost hanging upside down and I feel my skin starting to slip.</p><p><em>“Oh no…” </em>I think to myself as I shut my eyes tight and grit my teeth so hard, they might just break.</p><p>Her head stops moving for just a split second. Just long enough for me to wonder what she’s doing.</p><p>Suddenly I and Dorn slip off her tongue and for the briefest moment it almost feels like we’re free falling. With and audible gulp her throat opens up beneath us and before I know it, I feel a tight tube of mucus covered muscles slip around me and pull me down further. In a fraction of a second, I feel my whole body slide in effortlessly. It expands just above my head and contract right behind my feet, pushing me downwards, deeper into her body, relentlessly. I can barely breathe at all and the air I do catch is humid and hot to the point of it being uncomfortable</p><p>My first instinct is to struggle but her throat restricts my movement so much I can’t do much of anything. My best bet is to cling to my brother for dear life and hope this is over soon.</p><p>With gravity aiding her it’s a matter of seconds until our trip down her esophagus is over and the two of us slide into a much wider space.</p><p>I quickly suck in a few deep breaths but otherwise keep clinging to my brother’s scales like a shipwreck survivor clings to anything floating near him.</p><p>Dorn appears to be entirely unphased by everything that just went down, he carefully spreads his wings a little and wraps them around me. <strong><em>“You’re safe with me sister. Don’t worry, everything is fine.” </em></strong>He soothes me and carefully rubs my back.</p><p>I focus on my breathing for a bit in an attempt to suppress my fear and panic.</p><p><em>“This is fine, I’m safe.” </em>I keep repeating to myself over and over and over again, hoping that if I just repeat it often enough, I might believe it.</p><p>I can sense Skaftá looking into my mind from the outside, worried she might have overdone it.</p><p>But after what felt like an eternity of struggling with myself, I finally manage to regain control.</p><p>For the first time I focus on my senses, trying to make sense of what I’m feeling.</p><p>The first thing I notice is the fact that I’m lying atop some rather soft muscles that very, very slowly pulsate. They appear to be covered in a thick layer of viscous mucus and give off a lot of warmth.</p><p>The air is saturated with water and quite warm as well, almost uncomfortably so. And in the background, I hear a repetitive thumping at slightly more than one second intervals.</p><p><em>“Lub, dub. Lub, dub… Yup, that’s a heartbeat.” </em>I think to myself. <em>“I have never heard any of their heartbeats before, didn’t think this would be the first time…” </em></p><p>I want to take a look around but knowing where I am that would be both futile and a bad idea.</p><p><em>“Thank you, Dorn, I couldn’t have done this without you.” </em>I rest my head against the scales of his neck and sigh. <em>“And thank you </em><em>Skaftá for doing your best to make me feel safe the entire time.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I’m proud of you sister. This took some serious courage of you. I can’t think of anyone who would have voluntarily done this, even with me at their side.” </em></strong>He nuzzles his head against me, though it feels a little weird since we’re both thoroughly covered in whatever mix of mucus this is.</p><p>I laugh a little and sigh. <em>“I’m not sure if we’re still in courage territory or if we crossed over to insanity already.”</em></p><p><strong><em>“I wouldn’t call you insane for letting me swallow you. You were sure you could trust me so you felt safe and made the decision to go for it.” </em></strong>Skaftá reassures me.</p><p><em>“I wouldn’t say I felt completely safe but for some reason I was feeling bold tonight. Also, Dorn joining me is the only reason I went through with it.” </em>I try to release some of the tension in my body and relax against her stomach walls.</p><p><em>“Couldn’t have dreamt of this in my wildest dreams.” </em>I think to myself and try to get comfortable.</p><p>Surprisingly turns out that’s quite easy. Since I’m essentially lying on a bunch of tissue it easily changes shape to support my weight. It almost feels like a relatively soft bed, if you ignore that fact that I’m literally inside a dragon’s gut right now.</p><p>I hear Dorn yawn and get comfortable as well. <strong><em>“The worst is behind us now.” </em></strong>He states sounding quite sleepy.</p><p><em>“I wouldn’t go that far just yet. I’ll need to see if I’ll actually wake up again tomorrow…” </em>The sheer thought of how quickly this could go bad in the next few hours sends a panicked shiver down my spine.</p><p><strong><em>“What makes you think that that would happen? Besides I’m in here with you. You even said it yourself, what mother would willingly murder her own child?” </em></strong>Dorn says soothingly and snuggles up to me.</p><p><strong><em>“Children, Dorn. You’re both my children.” </em></strong>Skaftá adds a moment later.</p><p><em>“You two are right, I shouldn’t worry.” </em>I shove my concerns aside and try to sleep. I’ve got nothing else to do anyway.</p><p>As I lie there, waiting for sleep to come, I listen to mom’s heartbeat.</p><p>The dissipating stress, the repetitive sounds, the humidity and the feeling of my brother’s scales on my skin soon leave me feeling more and more drowsy.</p><p>The last thing I hear before my mind drifts off to sleep is my brother wishing me a restful sleep.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As I begin to dream, I notice a lot of the traumatic memories that were brought up trying to invade.</p><p>This could end up being a terrible night.</p><p>Fortunately, Dorn won’t let me have any nightmares. Just as I feel myself getting pulled into the murky depths of my past he swoops in and pulls me out of my dreams and into his.</p><p>He takes me far up into the clouds and carries me far away from home, leaving all my fears and trauma behind.</p><p>Together we spend the night soaring through the skies, chasing the sun, diving to the deepest depths of the ocean. Jauntily, I watch the world change around me. For now, I’m free.</p><p>But as all good things do, this too ends much too early. Dorn tries to keep my in his dream for a little longer but soon he has to let me slip out of the dreamland and back into the real world.</p><p>I wake up feeling quite warm, hot almost. My body feels stiff, as if I had been fraught throughout the entire night.</p><p>I try to open my eyes but notice a thick liquid keeping my eyelashes stuck together.</p><p><em>“Oh…right.” </em>I think to myself as I remember where I am. <em>“Somehow I’m still alive…”</em> I can’t quite believe it yet. But the thumping of moms’ heart is still there from yesterday.</p><p>Dorn is still holding me close and it seems like neither of us moved much during the night. Not that we could even if we wanted to. I remove my arms from his back and feel around a little. There’s barely any space to my left or right, not much more than a foot upwards and about as much above my head and below my feet.</p><p>The air feels even stuffier than yesterday. It had been just humid and a little stale back then but by now I can definitely tell that it’s getting barely breathable.</p><p><em>“How did I live? How did I not end up turned into mush? Is this still a dream? Is this some weird sort of afterlife?” </em>I pinch myself, or well try to at least, my pruney fingers can’t really grip the skin of my arms as it too is covered in the slime that coats Skaftás stomach.</p><p>
  <em>“It certainly feels real.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“That’s because it is little one. You’re not dead. Good morning.” </em></strong>Mom greets me. <strong><em>“I see you slept quite well?” </em></strong>She asks me and I can feel her move and her heart rate speeds up just a little.</p><p>The disconnect between her moving and me staying still gives me some minor vertigo but nothing I can’t deal with.</p><p><em>“I think? I slept at least, I can’t say much about the quality of it right now.” </em>I try to stretch as much as I can while still in the clutches of my brother and with the limited space I have. But even then, it feels heavenly to be able to move again.</p><p>Mom suddenly stops walking and I wonder where she’s going. In the meantime, I feel my brother stir awake as well. He pulls me close again and nuzzles me. <strong><em>“Good morning sister.” </em></strong>He sleepily greets me. <strong><em>“See, I told you we’d be fine.” </em></strong>He adds after yawning.</p><p><em>“I don’t know I could have doubted you.” </em>I reply with a smile.</p><p><em>“So uhm, what now?” </em>I ask mom.</p><p><strong><em>“Whenever you two feel ready I’ll regurgitate you.” </em></strong>She replies calmly.</p><p>I turn my head towards where I assume my brother to be and tilt it a little. Even though we’re in complete darkness he seems to know what I’m angling for.</p><p><strong><em>“We’re ready mom.” </em></strong>He replies on my behalf as well.</p><p>Almost right away I feel the muscles around me contract, pushing me upwards. For a split-second Dorn and I end up squished quite forcefully between her stomach walls and the top of her stomach.</p><p>The sudden tightness reminds me of yesterday and sends my heartrate through the roof. Everything went so well until now, I don’t want to get crushed now.</p><p>Suddenly we’re pushed back into her esophagus which quickly moves us upwards towards her head by it doing essentially the reverse motion of when she swallowed us.</p><p>Just seconds later the tightness of her throat disappears, and I feel myself slip onto her barbed tongue. The air feels so much colder but also fresher in here. I quickly take a few deep breaths. My head suddenly feels much clearer. <strong><em>“It might get a little cold now.” </em></strong>She warns us and tilts her head forwards.</p><p>As we begin to slide towards the front of her mouth, she opens it wide enough to let us slide out and onto the rocky ground. Dorn and I land in a heap of limbs and wings, both of us having gotten tangled up quite a bit when she sent us back up her throat.</p><p>I feel the rocks dig into my skin and the frigid cold wind of the ocean. The sound of waves crashing isn’t far, I assume mom carried us to the entrance of the cave so we can wash ourselves.</p><p>I awkwardly untangle myself and feel the mucus form strings as our bodies separate.</p><p>“Ugh.” I grumble as I stand on my knees and try to wipe my eyes off so I can finally open them.</p><p>The sun shines so bright I feel like I’m going blind, even while squinting it still stings and forces me to drop on all fours again.</p><p>I grimace and force myself to keep my eyes open so they can slowly get used to the light.</p><p>Soon the light becomes the least of my worries though. <strong><em>“Watch out sister.” </em></strong>I hear Dorn warn me, a split second later I feel moms tongue press against my back and slowly slide upwards, taking most of the saliva and mucus with it. She pushes it against me with such force I nearly fall over.</p><p>Once she has cleaned off my back, I start to think I’m safe but then she suddenly lifts me off the ground with her tongue and flips me onto my back before placing me back down again and giving me another lick to clean up my front side as well.</p><p>I’m pressed into the ground with an almost painful amount of force. <em>“At least it’s kind of warm.” </em>I think to myself as the cold makes goosebumps appear on my arms.</p><p>After she stopped licking me, I stay still for a moment longer, unsure whether or not there’s more coming.</p><p>Dorn gently nudges my shoulder. <strong><em>“You can get up now, I think mom is done with you.” </em></strong></p><p>I cautiously do as he said and sit up with half open eyes. By now they’ve mostly become used to the sunlight.</p><p>I see my brother sitting next to me, still covered in a layer of slimy liquid from head to claws that occasionally drips off him in big glops. Other than that, he looks completely normal.</p><p>I take a quick look at my hands, my fingers the pruniest I’ve ever seen, and my skin appears reddish in some places and there’s still a thin layer of saliva all over me. Otherwise I look pretty unharmed as well. <em>“Well that certainly was an experience.” </em>I think to myself and shake my arms to fling off some of the saliva. <em>“I should probably have a bath.” </em>I look over my shoulder into the ocean and can’t say that I’m looking forward to it. The water is going to be freezing cold.</p><p>Suddenly I hear my brother growl next to me and as I spin my head around, I see that mom has started cleaning him off as well. Dorn doesn’t appear to enjoy it much either, though he cooperates unlike when he had just hatched.</p><p>Seeing how I just went through the same thing I now understand why he always seemed so bothered by Skaftá cleaning him. She isn’t very gentle doing it.</p><p>While they’re still busy I decide to get things and walk into the ocean to clean off mom’s saliva.</p><p>As expected, the water feels like ice against my skin and I don’t think I’ve ever washed so quickly.</p><p><em>“This is probably the worst part of it.” </em>I think to myself as I rinse off my arms. <em>“Which is the most hilarious thing I’ve ever said.” </em>I shake my head and sigh.</p><p><em>“Having to wash myself with cold water after getting swallowed by a dragon, spending the night in its gut and then getting spat out is the worst part of the whole ordeal.” </em>I think about that sentence for a bit and still can’t quite believe what transpired yesterday.</p><p>Finally, I deem myself sufficiently clean after washing my hair thoroughly and quickly get out of the water. I stand on the rocks, just outside of the waves reach, shivering and shaking like a leaf in the wind.</p><p>Thankfully mom pities me and quickly casts a spell to evaporate the water and warm me up just a little bit. <em>“Thank you so much.” </em>I hug her snout and pet her. <em>“Thank you so much for this and everything you did yesterday.” </em>I feel her lips shift as she smiles widely.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No problem little one. I quite enjoyed it as well.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I hear Dorn step out of the water next to me and as I look over to him notice that he’s about to shake off the water. <em>“Oh, nonononono.” </em>I immediately jump aside and hide behind moms’ head as he sends droplets of water flying everywhere.</p><p>Luckily, it seems I was just in time to avoid just about all of it. <em>“Damn you, at least check if I’m nearby before you shake off the water.” </em>I grumble at Dorn.</p><p><strong><em>“Oops.” </em></strong>He replies mischievously.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey, don’t bully your sister. I’m still here too.” </em></strong>Skaftá intervenes and glares at Dorn.</p><p>He seems to get the message and scurries back into the cave. I decide to follow him, lest I catch a cold or worse out here.</p><p>Mom trails closely behind me, so close in fact I almost worry she’d step on the heel of my foot.</p><p><em>“I don’t want to imagine what would happen if she actually did that.” </em>People doing that can already hurt a bit and with her I’d probably end up completely flattened. <em>“Not that I need to worry about that. There’s a spell protecting me from that.” </em></p><p>I quickly stalk over to where I dropped my clothes yesterday and hastily put them on, then grab my blanket and wrap myself up. Even though mom had warmed me up a little it was just to get me out of hypothermia territory.</p><p>I sit down and shudder hoping that today would be a warmer day. Mom lies down behind me and rests her head such that it forms a three-quarter circle around me with her head resting in front of me.</p><p>While I sit next to the remains of last night’s fire Dorn is busy gathering some wood to make a new one. <em>“How uncharacteristic of him.” </em>I joke. <em>“Thank you, Dorn, I really wouldn’t want to get up right now.” </em>I pull the blanket a little tighter around me.</p><p>He winks at me and starts piling the wood up. He’s surprisingly good at it, using only his mouth and front paws to manipulate the wood.</p><p>It does take him a little longer to assemble the campfire as a few pieces slip but I’m still quite impressed with him. He doesn’t have thumbs after all.</p><p>Once he finishes piling up the wood, he takes a step back and admires his handywork.</p><p><strong><em>“Mom, can I light the fire today?”</em></strong> He asks Skaftá.</p><p>I tilt my head, wondering what he means.</p><p><strong><em>“Mmmh. Yes, but let Arya move back a bit more first.” </em></strong>She replies after a moment.</p><p>Without questioning it I scoot back until I bump into her front paw and closely watch my brother.</p><p>
  <em>“Is he going to breathe fire for the first time?” </em>
</p><p>He takes a deep breath and after a short pause releases a bright orange flame from between his teeth. The flames bathe the cave in flickering yellow and red tones as they engulf the wood.</p><p>Crackling and pops emanate from the campfire and a few seconds later he shuts his mouth, snuffing the flame, though some smoke keeps rising from his lips.</p><p><strong><em>“Well done Dorn.” </em></strong>Mom commends him and smiles happily.</p><p>He grins widely and lies down close to the fire. I move closer again as well and open up the blanket a little to let the heat of the fire warm me up.</p><p><em>“That was your first time breathing fire, right?” </em>I ask him while staring into the flames.</p><p>He grumbles in agreement and cozies up to me.</p><p><em>“I’m always impressed when any of you spew fire. There’s something mesmerizing about it. And at the same time, I’m always astounded that you don’t end up burning yourself with it.” </em>I pet his head and smile. This definitely feels nice.</p><p><strong><em>“Fire proof scales and a sprinkling of magic help a lot.” </em></strong>Dorn replies.</p><p><em>“I imagine they would.” </em>I let my eyes wander about the cave and notice that Dad and my other siblings are absent.</p><p><em>“Did they leave before we woke up?” </em>I ask mom while looking at her.</p><p><strong><em>“They did, though not long before.” </em></strong>She pauses for a moment. <strong><em>“Talking about you two waking up. How are we feeling today?” </em></strong></p><p>I take a moment to realize what she’s asking. <em>“Oh, uhm, well.” </em>I stutter. <em>“Feeling quite good actually. Even though I missed out on a few hours of sleep I’m quite well rested. I have to say that trip down your throat wasn’t that bad. Quite slimy but warm and your stomach turned out to be relatively comfortable…” </em>I pause for a moment.</p><p>
  <em>“Saying that felt really weird and I hate it.” </em>
</p><p>Skaftá makes a laugh like sound and grins. <strong><em>“I understand how you feel about it. But it’s good to know you at least found some comfort in it.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“Honestly though, disregarding what my instincts think of it. I could see myself doing that again. Now that I know I’m safe and can trust you. I might even stop panicking at some point.” </em>
</p><p>Her mind suddenly starts glowing with joy. <strong><em>“You have no idea how much that means to me. That you can put so much trust in me means the world to me.” </em></strong>She suddenly wraps her tail around me and gives me a tight squeeze.</p><p>I chuckle and reply with a warm smile. <em>“It took some convincing but in the end all is well. Thank you for taking care of me and keeping me comfortable all throughout my time with you lot.” </em></p><p>She gently brushes the tip of her tail over my cheek. <strong><em>“Here’s to years of good times.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“I hope so too. I hope I can spend every breathing minute with you.” </em>
</p><p>Skaftá nods happily and pats my head with her tail before withdrawing it.</p><p>As we sit in silence for a little bit I begin to wonder if Scáthán knew what had transpired yesterday. I’m quite sure he does but I’m also curious what he has to say about it. <em>“I’ll have to ask once he returns.”</em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No need to wait. We talked about this right as it became clear that you could commit to it.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>My jaw drops a little and I tilt my head. <em>“Huh? Did I not notice him waking up?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“He pretended to still be asleep and you were too stressed to notice as well.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Oooh, that makes a lot of sense.” </em>I quickly nod. <em>“But what did he have to say? I’m curious.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“He too commended your courage and agreed that it’d be best if your first time would be with me. Not because he thinks you don’t trust him but because he has a hard time resisting the urge to pull some kind of shenanigans.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“That does sound very much like him. I do agree, I wouldn’t have felt as safe with him.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Though, if it would have been him instead of me, we probably would have not done anything differently. We wouldn’t want to make you feel like we set you up for this.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“That sounds like a very smart idea. I’m not sure how I would have reacted but it’s not inconceivable that it could have destroyed my trust in you.” </em>I’m appreciating how open they are with me and how they seem to always have a plan for every scenario.</p><p><em>“Now another thing I want to know. How did swallowing me and my brother feel for you? Did you even feel anything once we were in there?” </em>I point a finger towards her side.</p><p>Skaftá grins widely. <strong><em>“Why don’t I show you?” </em></strong></p><p>I nod eagerly and shut my eyes in anticipation. Her presence in my mind grows stronger and I feel a memory flowing from her mind into mine.</p><p>A blurry image appears before my inner eye and it slowly grows clearer.</p><p>I’m standing right in front of her wide-open maw. I’ve already disappeared from her field of view, but she can still clearly sense my mind. It’s pulsating with fear and anxiety and just below the surface she can see the traumatic memories of my past tainting every thought.</p><p>She appears a little worried that I might end up pushing myself too far. But for now, things still look okay so she decides to let me continue.</p><p>She feels me carefully crawl into her mouth and my mind lights up even more with fear and terror. At the same time a taste between salty and meaty registers on her tongue. Skaftá likens it to chicken, she hadn’t had many in her life, but they came the closest.</p><p>She feels me and Dorn move around and waits for my mind to calm down before asking me if I want to continue.</p><p>As she closes her maw, she feels panic rise again and she patiently waits for it to ebb again.</p><p>Throughout all this she never takes her attention off me. Not even for a second.</p><p>With her mouth shut she takes a moment to savor the flavor Dorn and I leave on her tongue.</p><p>It takes me some time but eventually the turmoil in my mind settles down enough for her to ask if I want to go on once again.</p><p>She’s ready to spit me out any moment should I request it but to her surprise I decide to keep going.</p><p>For a second, she considers aborting anyway, thinking that I might be underestimating just how terrifying the next bit will be.</p><p>Still, Skaftá raises her head to let gravity aid her in swallowing me and my brother.</p><p>She pauses for a moment to make sure I’m still in control of my mind, then begins tilting her head back. Once she feels us starting to slip, she stops and readies herself to swallow.</p><p>She takes one last look at my mind before letting us slip towards her throat with just the slightest movement of her tongue. As we slide towards the back of her mouth she swallows as hard as she can, hoping that we’ll be squished less by her powerful oesophagus.</p><p>Sadly, it doesn’t end up working out like that and we still end up getting squeezed quite hard. Fortunately, with gravity aiding her it doesn’t last too long. She feels us quickly glide down her neck, it feels quite similar to any other larger prey she swallowed in one piece.</p><p>As expected, I begin to freak out as soon as I feel the pressure of her throat, she can even feel my futile attempts at struggling. Luckily, her throat muscles are too strong to let me move, otherwise I could end up getting hurt.</p><p>She slowly turns her head and sees the two coloured blobs that are our minds come to a halt in her stomach. Dorn is as calm as a clam while I’m having some serious trouble containing my instincts. She readies herself to regurgitate us at a moment’s notice as she watches my mind with hawk eyes.</p><p>A few minutes pass agonizingly slow before I appear to get a grip on my mind again. Skaftá visibly relaxes and rests her head on the ground. She swallows another little bit of air to make sure we have enough to last us the night. She could probably go to sleep soon but she won’t. She prefers keeping an eye on us throughout the night.</p><p>The memory begins to fade again, and I open my eyes again.</p><p><em>“That’s certainly different that what I expected, then again I don’t know what I expected. Not that I guess.” </em>It feels quite reassuring that she had been watching me the entire time. <em>“All in all, not too different from devouring your normal prey, only difference being we were still alive and didn’t get digested.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Well sometimes my prey is still alive when I swallow it, not for long after though.” </em></strong>She grins and winks at me. <strong><em>“I hope seeing that made you feel even safer about it.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“It did I’m pretty sure. Only other thing I think is kind of odd is that you seemed to erm enjoy the flavour I left in your mouth. I’m not sure how to feel about it.”</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You shouldn’t read too much into it. In the end you’re made of the same stuff my usual prey is, so my brain is hardwired to release an amount of endorphins when the tongue registers these molecules. It’s just a normal biological reaction, not much I can do about it sadly.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“You’ve got a point.” </em>I nod slowly. <em>“Then I conclude that I’ll most likely be wanting to repeat that… endeavor some time, maybe even today. Because considering it now with this newfound knowledge it’s looking mighty tempting. Warm, comfortable and safe. Oh, and you get to catch a proper nights sleep as well.” </em>I grin widely and rub my hands together.</p><p><strong><em>“I’ll gladly indulge your wants.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies and winks. <strong><em>“Though there’s no need to do anything just to make me happy.” </em></strong>She adds a moment later.</p><p>I chuckle and shake my head. <em>“We’ll see.”</em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>My stomach rumbles loudly enough for mom to hear. <strong><em>“Before we do anything you should probably get yourself something to eat.” </em></strong>She appears amused by my embarrassment.</p><p><em>“Heh, I guess so.” </em>I reply while averting my eyes. <em>“That was quite impeccable timing.” </em></p><p>I quickly move the rack and pot over the fire and stir its contents a little.</p><p>While I wait for it to warm up my eyes fall onto the bone comb. <em>“I probably should brush my hair again.” </em>I remember how it felt all knotty and tangled again when I was washing it earlier. <em>“But I don’t want to.” </em>I carefully scratch my scalp and feel a burning sensation. Seems like it’s still irritated from last time and I assume last night didn’t help it either.</p><p><em>“But I also should.” </em>I think as I grab the comb. If I don’t do it now, it’ll only get worse and I’ll have to cut it all off. <em>“Come to think of it, lopping it all off might be an idea too.” </em></p><p>I place the comb in the ends of my hair and try to brush it through. Surprisingly it isn’t completely terrible. There are some places it gets stuck but even when I try to brush along the full length its surprisingly fine. Still, every time it does catch, I feel my scalp light up a little more with pain. <em>“Might be beyond saving at this point.” </em>I put the hairbrush aside for a moment to stir my breakfast.</p><p>Not much later I finish brushing my hair. I didn’t rip out nearly as much hair as last time and letting my hands glide through it now, I can feel some broken bits here and there but it’s not as bad as expected. <em>“Maybe there’s still hope. But if I do have to cut it, how would I do it?” </em>I peer over at my mom. <em>“There’s probably a plethora of ways.” </em></p><p>Skaftá notices me looking her and I feel her presence in my head grow a little.</p><p><strong><em>“There sure are, though most aren’t as useful as you think. If I were to use my claws or even teeth, I could only get so close to your head. Besides, the results would be rather uneven too. Using magic to either make you scissors or using magic outright would yield better results.” </em></strong>She says after a short pause.</p><p><em>“I mean even with scissors I don’t think I could do a better job than you with your claws. But your point still stands. I guess for now we just wait and see if it really is beyond saving.” </em>I chuckle at the mental image of me trying to cut my own hair. <em>“Oh, what a mess that would be.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>
  <em>“Though I do wonder if magic could be used to just fix it? I wouldn’t mind chopping it off either, just curious.”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“We probably could do that too, energy wise it’d probably be similar</em></strong><em>. <strong>In the end we’ leave that up to you.” </strong></em>She cracks a smile. <strong><em>“Just let me know if you need my help.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod and keep messing with my hair for a bit before noticing steam rise from the pot. I quickly grab myself a plate and fill it to the brim.</p><p>While I take my time at first, once the food has cooled enough, I scarf it down in record time. My hunger had become ravenous over the last few minutes as the smell of food began to fill the air.</p><p>After a smaller second helping I finally start feeling full and put my plate aside. There’s still a little bit left in the pot. <em>“Not enough for dinner, too much to finish now.” </em>I put my plate and spoon aside.</p><p><em>“I could boil it down a bunch and keep it warm throughout the day. Then later add water and some fish or whatever and have dinner. Or I could just give it to my brother and make dinner from scratch again, would be about the same effort anyway.” </em>In the end I shrug and decide to let my brother have it if he wants.</p><p>Before I can even turn around to tell him he’s already at my side. <em>“I see someone was listening in to my thoughts?” </em>I ask him with a grin.</p><p><strong><em>“Hey, I can’t really help it. I have to actively block them out to not hear them.” </em></strong>He peeks into the pot and licks his chops.</p><p><em>“It’s alright. I know that we basically share a mind.”</em> I gently pet his neck. <em>“Have at it if you want. But I recommend you let me move it off the fire first.” </em>He quickly takes a step back to let me move the whole thing. <em>“Careful hot.” </em>I warn him as I unhook the pot and place it in front of him. <em>“Though, who am I telling that?” </em>I add as I watch him grab it with both paws, clearly unaffected by the heat.</p><p>It only takes him a couple seconds to completely empty the rest and lick the pot clean.</p><p><em>“Someone’s quite hungry I see.” </em>I joke as he pulls his head out of the pot.</p><p><strong><em>“Quite.” </em></strong>He replies while looking around for more, clearly not satiated by this little appetizer.</p><p><em>“Boy am I glad you’re still small. Can’t try anything funny yet.” </em>I chuckle lightly.</p><p><strong><em>“Yet.” </em></strong>He replies with a smug expression on his lips.</p><p><strong><em>“Before either of you get any ideas. I’ll head out and get you something to eat Dorn.” </em></strong>She gets up and heads for the exit. <strong><em>“And don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.” </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>“We would never.” </em></strong>Dorn and I reply in unison, knowing very well we’re lying.</p><p>Skaftá doesn’t even honour him with a reply to that as she takes off and heads out to sea.</p><p>Dorn and I look at one another and just grin, then cuddle up to one another after I add some wood to the fire.</p><p><em>“So, Dorn, I want to ask you too. How did getting eaten feel like to you?” </em>I gently rub his head while waiting for his reply.</p><p><strong><em>“Not all that different than it did for you. Just without the fear and anxiety.” </em></strong>He rests his head on my tummy and looks at me. <strong><em>“Warm, soft, wet and slimy would be the four main adjectives that come to mind. Oh, and humid.”</em></strong></p><p>I nod along as I listen to him. <em>“I figured as much. Why were you not afraid? Was it really all based off that one time she swallowed the eggs?”</em></p><p><strong><em>“Yes. Well and being a dragon myself, I know that what she was telling you was accurate. Thus, I didn’t have all that distrust in my head.” </em></strong>He blinks slowly as he enjoys me rubbing his head. <strong><em>“Not that you were being unreasonable. If anything, you managed to stay surprisingly calm. Not much struggling or squirming to be had.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“I was surprised by that as well. The only time I ever actually felt like fighting for my life was in her throat. The tightness just set me off.” </em>I think back and shudder a little. Maybe it was claustrophobia speaking to me in those moments.</p><p><strong><em>“Which in that context is basically nothing.” </em></strong>He smiles happily. <strong><em>“Be proud of yourself sister. Like mom said, they both think you were really courageous yesterday. Takes a lot of trust and bravery to do anything close to that. Even that one time you willingly climbed into dads’ mouth to clean it was more than just about anyone would be willing to do.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I know you mean what you say but there’s still this voice in my head telling me that bravery and foolishness can be the same thing. And I have a feeling that it’ll only shut up with more positive experiences.” </em>I smile back at him, though mine is weary more than anything else.</p><p>
  <em>“Though that doesn’t mean I’m not taking your words to heart. They’ll definitely help me come the time to repeat it all. Sadly, experiences speak much louder than words, so until then there’ll be this paranoid voice in my head.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“We know you’re deeply appreciating our words. Mom and I both noticed a change in your mind. I think it’s because of you finally accepting that you can fully trust us no matter what.” </em></strong>He nuzzles his head against me.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“And if it’s just repeating last night a few times over to shut your inner doubt up, then I’ll gladly accompany you through all of it.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Thank you, brother.” </em>My weary smile transforms into one of happiness as well. <em>“What would I do without you?” </em></p><p><em>“One more thing, were you in on the whole ordeal? Did you know they were planning something like that?”</em> My expression suddenly becomes serious again.</p><p><strong><em>“Not really. When my parents mentioned eating you, I could see something in their minds but couldn’t quite figure out what it meant. I guessed it was something unrelated.” </em></strong>He pauses for a moment. <strong><em>“The thing with our parents’ minds is that they can be all over the place at times. They can be talking to you about one thing while at the same time planning the next day out.”</em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“So really you were nearly as clueless as me? Things only started making sense in hindsight?” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Basically, though I realized pretty quick that those… erm hints were more than they made them out to be at the time.” </em></strong>He looks around quickly, then continues. <strong><em>“Didn’t really like that they did that either but I also see where they were coming from.” </em></strong></p><p>I sigh and take a deep breath. <em>“Good to hear I’m not the only one who feels like that. But as they said, I would have probably refused to believe it back then and it would have destroyed all future chances.”</em></p><p>Dorn tries to nod but as his head is still on my tummy, he just pushes his chin into it.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“On a slightly unrelated note. Would you be willing to do the same with me once I grow up?”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I tilt my head a little and look deep into his eyes. <em>“You mean let you eat me?” </em>I take a moment to think and let my eyes idly wander along his head to his neck and finally his side.</p><p><em>“I mean…” </em>I lock eyes with him again. <em>“There’s nothing that speaks against it. That is if I get over my fears by then.” </em>I try to imagine him once he’s grown.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry about that sister. It’ll be half a year at least before I’m large enough to even think about it. Maybe closer to a year.” </em></strong>He smiles happily. <strong><em>“But we don’t have to if you don’t want to by then. I’m just kind of curious how it’s like. I know I can look at moms’ memories but I feel it’s not quite the same.”</em></strong></p><p><em>“I can see myself most likely being down for it, after all what’s the difference. And I do trust you more than mom and dad so there shouldn’t be any issues.” </em>I smile warmly at him and pet his head some more.</p><p><strong><em>“Thank you for putting so much trust in me.” </em></strong>He nuzzles his head against my hands.</p><p>
  <em>“No need to thank me Dorn.” </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>We remain snuggled together like this until mom returns. I sense her mind approaching while she’s still some half a mile (~800m) away. I close my eyes and try to sense her thoughts but she’s simply too far away for me to make anything out.</p><p><strong><em>“Seems we’ll be having plenty of fish today.” </em></strong>Dorn interrupts my thoughts. <em>“What a surprise, I wonder what else she could have possibly caught out there in the ocean. Sea urchins maybe?”</em></p><p>I stick my tongue out at him.</p><p><strong><em>“Very funny sister. Very funny.” </em></strong>He lifts his lips just enough to flash the tip of his teeth at me.</p><p><em>“Thank you for stating the obvious again brother.”</em> A wide grin takes over and Dorn just quietly growls.</p><p>Mom lands in the entrance of the cave not much later and quickly heads inside, she seems to be awfully hurried.</p><p>As she turns the corner, she stops for a second to look at us. <strong><em>“Surprising neither of you managed to get hurt.” </em></strong>She looks at us a little closer. <strong><em>“In fact, seems like you two haven’t moved at all.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Why are you so surprised? I didn’t end up in bloody pieces every time.” </em>I make sure to put extra emphasis on every.</p><p>Skaftá glares at me for a split second. <strong><em>“True but I had a hunch. Still, good to see you two safe.” </em></strong></p><p>She quickly walks over to us and lies down. Before she rests her head, she opens her mouth a little to let an impressive amount of fish glide onto the ground.</p><p>Dorn pulls his head out from under my hands and before I know it, he scoots out from under my back, leaving me to fall over backwards.</p><p>By the time I sit back up he’s already neck deep in the pile, greedily gobbling up everything that gets between his jaws. <em>“Hungry dragons sure are scary. Good thing mom and dad either figured out how to control it or just don’t get to that level of hungry.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“It’s a bit of both.” </em></strong>Mom answers my thoughts. <strong><em>“Though mostly that we learn to control ourselves. And that we aren’t growing anymore helps as well.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“That does make sense, adolescent humans tend to be more ravenous than adults as well. Most of the time anyway.” </em>We both watch him eat for a while. I’m once again left in awe at how much he food he can fit into his body.</p><p>It’s not long before he cleaned up most of the pile, leaving only a few fish strewn about. I steal myself one for later and leave the rest for mom or my siblings.</p><p>Dorn lazily lies down next to me as I prepare the fish for later. Seems he overate once again, though by now it seems he has gotten used to it.</p><p>He watches me as I go to work on my dinner. I let him steal most of the organs, though I do keep some for myself as I’ve recently noticed some vitamin deficiencies. Fortunately, they’re easily fixed by eating certain organs of some animals, so they didn’t become a huge issue.</p><p>Once dinner is mostly prepared, I snuggle up to him again and we spend most of the day lying there on the ground. Only occasionally do I get up to add more wood to the fire.</p><p>Mom alternates between watching us and dozing around for most of the day.</p><p>I spend my time mentally messing around, both on my own and with my brother, however we try to keep it low key when mom is half asleep as we both worry things might go sideways somehow.</p><p>In those times where I get to just lay around and think I find my thoughts constantly circling back to the events of last night. No matter how removed the first thoughts are they always end up circling back to it. Eventually I stop trying to fight it and let my curiosity take over. <em>“I wonder if there are any more hints in my memories that I didn’t find yesterday.” </em></p><p>With time I start remembering a lot of small isolated incidents where I wondered how it’d be like to get eaten, or how I found chapters in any books that alluded to similar things to be the most interesting. Some of these memories date back to my preteen years, the earliest I can find must have been when I was around eight or maybe nine. <em>“I’m really starting to think it was always there, from the moment I was born something in my brain was broken. I didn’t know for the longest time. Much less could I assign a name to it.” </em>I think to myself. <em>“But most of the time I didn’t think more about it. Those were just random idle thoughts like many others. And once I could assign a name to it and knew what it was, I felt weird about it and wanted to forget about it. And since it was buried below many more traumatic memories it got lost in the depths of my mind.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Still trying to figure your brain out?” </em></strong>Dorn asks me as my thoughts begin to trail off again.</p><p>“Mhmmm.” I hum absently minded. <em>“It feels weird suddenly remembering all these things that weren’t there yesterday. And they all feel so fresh. I sometimes wonder how they never ended up randomly popping into my mind.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Human brains operate in strange ways at times.” </em></strong>Dorn replies, nudging my ribs to snap me out of my thoughts. <strong><em>“So, don’t think too hard about it. Sometimes these things just kind of happen.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“You’re probably right, I should just be glad things went the way they did.” </em>
</p><p>Seeing how it’s already the later hours of evening I soon start wondering when Scáthán will be back. With his return approaching I’m also starting to get excited again. I can’t wait to see what he has to say, or my siblings for that matter.</p><p>With my excitement growing, the hours start to drag on. It’s getting hard to focus on any kind of mental shenanigans, mostly because my focus is all but used up.</p><p>The sun begins to set on us, lighting the cave up with a dim orange light. After adding some more wood to the fire, I decide it’s about time to make some dinner. I’m not quite hungry yet but this way I can take my time with cooking. Maybe even season it properly for once instead of rushing it because I’m feeling hungry and can’t wait.</p><p>Being busy with my pot and the food within it, time passes a little more quickly. The sun disappears behind the horizon and before I know it, I sense a powerful familiar mind nearby.</p><p>A happy smile spreads across my lips and I quickly turn around. I stare at the caves entrance and listen closely for the sounds of my dad landing. All while trying to track his mind.</p><p>Minutes later I sense my dad being quite close and hear the crunch of rocks beneath his paws. He hobbles around the corner, Aonar and Coille lying on his back. Both are visibly exhausted but not quite to the point where they can’t stand anymore.</p><p>He slows down as he rounds the corner and my siblings quickly glide off his back. <strong><em>“Welcome back.” </em></strong>Skaftá greets him with a smile.</p><p>He nods and trots over to his usual spot while my siblings lie down between mom and the fire.</p><p><em>“I see you three had a good day out.” </em>I state, looking between them.</p><p><strong><em>“Very much indeed.” </em></strong>Scáthán stretches a little and yawns. <strong><em>“And you two had quite the night too.”</em></strong></p><p>He locks eyes with me and smiles. <strong><em>“I really did listen in on the whole thing and I have to say I’m proud of you. I’m glad you can put that kind of trust in us.” </em></strong>He blinks slowly. <strong><em>“Well one of us at least, but I’m proud of you either way.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Thanks dad… It’s kind of sad but I’m really not sure if I could have gone through with it if it had been you instead of mom.” </em>I avert my eyes and frown a little. It really is quite sad that I could see myself trusting mom this much but not him.</p><p><strong><em>“Oh, don’t worry about it. I know you trust me less than Skaftá and for good reasons. I haven’t exactly contributed positively to your opinion of me. Just know that even if it may not seem like it at times, I love you as much as Skaftá.” </em></strong>I can sense him smiling at me. This is the second time they said they love me, and it still leaves a weird feeling in my gut. I think it is mostly positive feelings but then I also don’t know what to make of it.</p><p><em>“Maybe this can be a chance too. Maybe once I get more…used…to it. I feel like it’ll just take a nudge in the right direction for me to realise you too don’t mean any harm to me. And maybe letting you swallow me whole can be that nudge?”</em> I slowly turn my eyes back towards him.</p><p><strong><em>“I don’t think that would still qualify as a nudge, it’s probably closer to strapping a rocket to your back and sending you on your way. But if you feel like it might help you, I’ll be gladly indulging you.”</em></strong> His smile grows wider.</p><p>
  <em>“Fair point but you get what I meant. I’ll see how I feel about it over the coming days or weeks.” </em>
</p><p>I force a weak smile and sigh.</p><p><strong><em>“If you don’t want to go alone, I’ll gladly keep you company again sister.” </em></strong>Dorn reminds me while rubbing his head against mine. <strong><em>“I’ll always be there for you.” </em></strong></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I gently push back against him. <em>“I know you are. And I can’t express how I grateful I am for it.” </em></p><p>Dorn makes a few happy sounding noises. <strong><em>“No need to sister.” </em></strong></p><p>I notice Coille and Aonar watching us from the other side of the campfire. I shoot them an inquisitive look and tilt my head a little.</p><p>Neither of them replies for a moment. <strong><em>“I hope to one day be as courageous as you sister.” </em></strong>Coille says to me. <strong><em>“When I was wondering where you and Dorn went after I woke up Dad clued me in. I tried to put myself into your shoes and I don’t think I could have done it. You have my deepest respect for that.” </em></strong>I close my eyes for a moment to take a closer look at her mind, she is indeed quite impressed with me. <em>“It’s nothing too special. Since I had Dorn with me, I knew I was safe. Without him I wouldn’t have done it either.” </em>I reply as I open my eyes again.</p><p><strong><em>“Even considering that, I would have been too afraid had I been in your place.” </em></strong>She smiles widely. <strong><em>“But I’m glad you found the courage to do it. I’m very proud of you.” </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, you can be very proud of yourself. I didn’t think you’d have the bravery for it. But seeing how you’re full of surprises I guess that was to be expected.” </em></strong>It takes me a moment to figure that it is Aonar speaking to me as he hadn’t really talked much to me…or at all.</p><p>I’m taken aback by his words and fumble my reply a few times. <em>“Uhm…thanks Aonar.” </em>I’m really unsure what to make of it.</p><p>He nods respectfully. <strong><em>“I meant that in a good way.” </em></strong></p><p>I answer with a nod as well.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t think too much about it little one. He’s a bit more of a loner and doesn’t really talk much, even with his Dorn and Coille. He’s also not exactly the best at conveying emotion and things like that.” </em></strong>Skaftá breaks the silence in my head, though it seems she’s only directing her words at me.</p><p><em>“Alright, thanks mom.” </em>I look over at him for a bit and smile. <em>“I know how you feel…” </em>I quietly think to myself, trying to keep the others from hearing my thoughts for a moment.</p><p>
  <em>“I’m still not sure how the whole emotion thing is supposed to work, much less how to express them with words. Good thing my parents can bypass the whole language thing altogether.”</em>
</p><p>My stomach rips me out of my thoughts as it grumbles, and a strong sting penetrates my gut. <em>“Right, I should have dinner. Good thing I already prepared it a while ago.” </em>I quickly move the pot out of the fire and fill a plate to the brim. Carefully I balance it into my lap, trying not to spill anything. Though I can’t fully avoid it. The hot soup burns on my thighs, but I ignore the pain. If I tried to do something about it now, I’d only end up spilling more.</p><p>As I wait for my food to cool not much happens. Dorn is happily lying next to me, Aonar and Coille both appear to be quite tired and close to dozing off while our parents watch us silently.</p><p>With the night settling in it quickly gets quite dark in the cave, the fire illuminates just enough for me to see my food, though Scáthán almost completely disappears in the darkness.</p><p>As I’m starting to finally feel full, I also feel the fog of tiredness creep into my brain. It’s probably because my body is busy digesting my dinner and that’s taking resources away from my brain.</p><p>I drowsily look over at Dorn. <em>“Bed time?” </em>I ask him.</p><p><strong><em>“Bed time.” </em></strong>He replies and lifts one wing to let me crawl under it.</p><p>I happily cosy up against his side as he drapes his wing over me and rests his head on top of it. And while I had slept like this many nights before, tonight I’m acutely aware of how uncomfortable it still is. Still I decide to ignore it, with how tired I am I’ll still fall asleep soon.</p><p>We both slowly close our eyes and before long start drifting off to sleep.</p><p>Scáthán and Skaftá wish us a good night right as they sense us doze off.</p><p><em>“Good night everyone.” </em>I reply.</p><p><strong><em>“Good night mom and dad. Good night sister.” </em></strong>Dorn pulls me a little closer.</p><p>I patiently wait for sleep to overcome me but much to my disappointment nothing happens. The cold and hard ground are for some reason bothering me more than they used to.</p><p>I end up tossing and turning a bunch, keeping my brother awake in the process.</p><p><strong><em>“Can’t sleep Arya?” </em></strong>He asks me after a bit.</p><p>I grumble quietly and nod. <em>“Sorry for keeping you up.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry about me. But if you’re too uncomfortable to sleep, we have an easy out.” </em></strong>He sleepily smiles at me.</p><p>I look at him with a confused gaze. <em>“What do you-“ </em>Then I realise what he’s hinting at. <em>“Oh, right.” </em>I peer over at Skaftá <em>“That is an option.” </em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I take a deep breath and puff up my cheeks. <em>“But are there really any arguments against it?” </em></p><p>I slowly breathe out and close my eyes. <em>“Not really. I guess I’d get to deal with her cleaning me off tomorrow and the cold associated with that. But that’s it.” </em>I open my eyes again and stare at her. <em>“Now for the positives…No, no I don’t think I can get myself to think of anything as positive in that context yet.” </em>I notice mom staring right back at me. <em>“Anyway, no reason to beat around the bush. I can’t come up with a cogent argument against letting her gobble me up soooo...” </em>I look down at my brother. <em>“I think I’m taking the easy way out and I would love for you to come with me.” </em></p><p>Dorn smiles and slowly lifts his head to let him move his wing off of me. <strong><em>“And I’ll gladly come with you. Though I do wonder if you really did just imply that you considered going on your own.” </em></strong></p><p>I peer over to mom for a second. <em>“Maybe.” </em>As I feel him get up from under me, I too get up.</p><p>My knees already feel like pudding but today at least my conscious self is determined so there hopefully won’t be any hesitating.</p><p>Before I commit to taking the first step, I remember that somewhere in the darkness, outside of the shine of the fire, Scáthán lies, probably watching us. <em>“I wonder…No, I don’t think I have the nerves for that yet. But I hope he doesn’t feel left out…” </em>Remembering what he ´said to me earlier I figure he’s most likely fine and decide to push my concerns aside. I face forward again and take a first step towards mom.</p><p>Skaftá lifts her head off the ground just a little. <strong><em>“Anything I can do for you two?” </em></strong> She smiles widely and tilts her head a little.</p><p>I nod slowly as I take a few steps towards her, Dorn staying right by my side. <em>“Can’t sleep for some reason. The ground feels too uncomfortable.” </em>Subconsciously I wonder why she didn’t know but it’s probably for the same reason as yesterday. She stayed out of my head for a bit to make sure I didn’t feel like she influenced the decision.</p><p><strong><em>“I see, so I assume you’re asking to be swallowed?” </em></strong>Her smile grows ever wider, exposing some of her teeth. <em>“You’re correct with that assumption.” </em>I stop a few steps away from her.</p><p><strong><em>“Very well, you seem to be as ready as ever. Would you like some light again?” </em></strong>The fire hadn’t quite burnt out yet, but it also wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the cave anymore. <em>“Uhm sure, though would it really do much? Won’t be seeing it for long anyway.” </em>I think back to yesterday and how the ball of light she summoned didn’t give of much more light than the fire does right now.</p><p><em>“Unless I could take it with me, that could actually be kind of neat.” </em>I say as I realise that the ball of light isn’t fixed in place. <strong><em>“You sure could. I can make it follow you or you could grab it and hold on to it for as long as you like.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“That would be lovely.” </em>I reply quickly.</p><p>Just a few seconds later the air in front of me begins to glow dimly, then quickly grows brighter until it far outshines the fire. Her eyes have also started to glow quite a bit, I can even see it reflecting off the scales around her eyes.</p><p>The ball of light bathes the whole cavern in a warm and cosy white-orange light, very much unlike the sickly, pale, blueish white from yesterday.</p><p>It shines so bright I have to squint and avert my eyes for a moment. Fortunately, Skaftá notices that she overdid it a bit and dials the brightness down a bit. I still can’t quite directly look at it, but at least I don’t need to squint anymore. <strong><em>“Sorry little one, I was a bit overzealous.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“It’s okay, my eyes would have probably gotten used to it.” </em>I grit my teeth as I brace myself for what’s to come. <em>“Anyway, I’m starting to get cold.” </em>I rub my arms and shudder, then realise that I should probably lay off my clothes first. Without me even saying a single word, Skaftá closes her eyes and Dorn turns his head away. A smile creeps across my face and a sigh escapes my lips. <em>“So accommodating and thoughtful.” </em>Without wasting another moment, I rid myself of most of my clothes and place them on the floor next to me.</p><p>Right as I get back up, I hear the tell-tale sound of mom opening her mouth. When I look up, I already find myself staring right into her wide-open jaws.</p><p>I take a second to take in the view, now that I get to see it with some proper lighting. I hadn’t paid much attention to it but now I notice that the colour of the flesh lining her mouth is basically the same as mine. Her tongue reminds me of that of a dog, though the surface is more akin to the tongue of a cat with it’s zillions of tiny barbs. The teeth are nothing new to me as I already had some time to familiarise myself with them when I plucked wool from Scátháns mouth. Though towards the back I notice a few strings of saliva bridging the gap between her upper and lower jaw.</p><p>Generally, I find it curious how little saliva there appears to be, I would have thought it would be more. <em>“Though I guess that can change at a moment’s notice.” </em></p><p>I rub my hands together and breathe in deep. <em>“Time to go.” </em>I slowly lean forward when I suddenly remember that I’m forgetting something.</p><p>I stand up straight again and reach for the ball of light.</p><p><strong><em>“Hold on for a second Arya.” </em></strong>Skaftá interrupts me right as my hand is about to touch the formless ball. My hand jerks back and I look up at her, or well, her upper jaw. <em>“What is it?” </em>I ask worriedly.</p><p><strong><em>“I forgot that you couldn’t actually touch the ball yet. It was simply a volume of space that I manipulated to emit photons. So, if you had put your hand in it, it would have just phased right through.” </em></strong>She pauses briefly and I can sense her focusing. <strong><em>“There, now it should have some physicality to it.” </em></strong></p><p>I cautiously reach out again and indeed. I feel my fingers touch something feels almost like glass, though neither cold nor warm. Very carefully I close my hand around it and pull it closer. The ball of light stays in my hand as expected, like a weightless tennis ball. <em>“I wonder what would have happened had I stuck my hand into it before…” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I can’t be sure but I recon photons getting emitted right inside your cells can’t be good. Sure, it isn’t ionizing radiation but still enough to break chemical bonds or at least dump tons of energy into your body which will also eventually break things. So, it would have probably burned quite badly.” </em></strong>I look at the back of my hand, mesmerized by the light shining through my fingers. <em>“Sounds about right, I can even feel it warm up my hand a little right now.” </em></p><p>While my hand blocks most of the light, what shines through my fingers still lights up my surroundings well enough. <em>“Anyway, where were we?” </em>I look ahead and right into her wide-open maw again. <em>“Right.” </em></p><p>Once again, I lean forward, holding the ball of light close to my chest and placing my other hand on her tongue. Then I carefully lift one leg over her teeth. I take a moment to ensure that I’ve got safe footing before pulling in my other leg as well.</p><p>Carefully, I crawl in a bit further before lying down. The warmth seeping from her tongue into me feels quite nice and while my heart is racing, I don’t feel nervous or anxious at all.</p><p>Dorn hops in as well, landing right beside me and quickly lies down too.</p><p><strong><em>“That was really quick.” </em></strong>He says as he snuggles up against me.</p><p><em>“I mean why would I have hesitated? I know how this is going to go. No use in delaying rest even longer than I already have.” </em>I put my free arm around him and pull him close.</p><p><strong><em>“Still, you didn’t even waste a single second, just crawled right into moms’ mouth. Even I didn’t see that coming.” </em></strong>He wraps his front legs around me. <strong><em>“You’re doing really good for just the second time.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“But only because I knew I had you as backup.” </em>I pat his back and rest my head against his scales.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m not even sure if having your brother with you would have made much of a difference. With how confidently you got in there and how you pushed the fact that he was beside your feet out of your mind.” </em></strong>Skaftá replies as she slowly closes her mouth.</p><p>I watch my view of the outside slowly shrink until her teeth meet up and cut us off from the outside world. Immediately I notice the gentle breeze that had been blowing into the cave stop and the air begins warming up rapidly. I hadn’t even noticed how much my body had cooled down until now.</p><p>
  <em>“If you say so, I don’t even remember what I was thinking in those moments.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Trust me, I’ve been watching your mind closely again. Just in case something goes wrong.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I feel her lift her head a little, nowhere near as much as yesterday. <strong><em>“On an unrelated note however. When I swallowed you two yesterday you were mostly dry still and my throat disagreed with that quite a bit. So, would you mind if I coat you two in some saliva to make swallowing easier?” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“What’s the difference? We’ll both end up coated in some sort of fluid or slime by the time we reach your stomach anyway. Also, I hope it didn’t cause you too much discomfort yesterday.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Oh, don’t worry, it wasn’t much. I’d just prefer to not have to deal with it every time if this becomes a common occurrence.” </em></strong>I can sense her smiling.</p><p>
  <em>“In any case, it really doesn’t matter if you do or don’t, so I don’t see why not.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Just be warned that you may be thrown around a bunch. Though I’ll try to be gentle.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I hold onto my brother as tightly as I can. <em>“Sure thing, I’m ready for whatever.” </em>As I lie there waiting, I notice that her tongue has started feel a lot wetter.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m ready too.” </em></strong>Dorn adds and hugs me tightly as well. I quickly close my eyes in anticipation of what’s to come.</p><p>Less than a second later Skaftá wraps her tongue around us, squishing us together quite a bit. Then she somehow manages to flip us over.</p><p>After that I quickly lose my orientation as she keeps tossing and turning us about in her mouth and still somehow manages to avoid slamming us into her teeth or the roof of her mouth.</p><p>Just as quickly as it began it ends again. I find myself and Dorn lying perfectly still on her tongue again. My breath runs heavy and my arms feels sore from clinging to my brother. <em>“A-Are we done?” </em>I ask as I feel saliva run all over my body. <strong><em>“Yes, it’s over. Sorry for tossing you around so much.” </em></strong>She gently squeezes us with her tongue.</p><p><em>“Oh, it’s okay, just a little disoriented.” </em>I lift my head up a little and try to wipe her saliva off my eyes, but it doesn’t help much. No matter which hand or finger I use, it always feels like it’s leaving more behind than there was before. But at least I’m feeling nice and warm now, albeit a bit slimy.</p><p>In the end I decide to just carefully crack open my eyes and pray that my eyelashes do their job.</p><p>Luckily the high viscosity of her saliva keeps it out of my eyes well enough. I slowly look around, everything looks the same, though I do notice large amounts of saliva all around.</p><p><strong><em>“Do you want me to put a spell on your eyes so you can keep them open without worrying about getting anything into them?” </em></strong>Skaftá asks.</p><p><em>“That would be lovely.” </em>I reply and quickly shut my eyes as I feel a droplet roll towards one.</p><p><strong><em>“Hold on.” </em></strong>Just a few moments later I feel the layer of liquid magically move away from my eyes and the droplet suddenly changes its path. <strong><em>“There, it should be safe to keep your eyes open now.” </em></strong></p><p>I carefully open my eyes again and smile widely. <em>“Thank you so much </em><em>Skaftá.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No problem little one. Now shall I send you on your way, you two must be really tired.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>I look at the ball of light in my hand, then at Dorn. He stares back for a second, then nods. <em>“I think we’re both ready.” </em>I clutch the ball close to my chest and brace myself for what’s to come.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Alright then, keep your arms close, legs straight and brace yourself.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I feel my heartrate rise quickly as I grip the ball of light tighter. <em>“Here we go.” </em>I think to myself, waiting for her to raise her head.</p><p>But instead I only feel her tilt her head backwards a little, as well as the tip of her tongue moving upwards to let us slowly towards her gullet. I peer upwards to see the back of her mouth coming ever closer. I take a deep breath, knowing that air will be scarce for the next few seconds. As we’re about to reach the far end she throws her head back even further and swallows at the same time. I can see her throat open up above us, ready to engulf me and my brother. We effortlessly slip right in, though this time she doesn’t manage to swallow us in a single gulp.</p><p>I feel her throat close up around my waist, but the muscles immediately get to work slowly dragging us in deeper.</p><p>Now that I’m not completely panicked, I get to actually enjoy the warm and tight embrace of her esophagus. The rhythmic contractions of the flesh around us end up feeling a little like a massage even. I use this brief pause to try and have a look around with the little light that remains. As expected, there isn’t much to see, just a bunch of smooth flesh covered in a thick layer of mucus.</p><p>After a few moments Skaftá swallows again. I feel her throat relax around Dorn and me and we slide in quite a bit deeper. This time we both end up fully enclosed by her throat. Now that the smooth tube of muscles can get a proper grip on us it quickly pushes us deeper and deeper into her body. Soon I start to hear the thumping of her heart, it grows louder for a bit before fading again. Only a couple seconds later we slide into her stomach.</p><p>I sigh a sigh of relief and take a couple deep breaths. It sure feels good to be out of her throat, but I can’t deny that it still felt somewhat nice. It’s probably the closest to a hug that I’ll ever get from my parents, a full body hug at that though.</p><p>I can’t help but smile at the thought of this being a very elaborate way of hugging me. <em>“Well, them wrapping their tails around me and giving me a light squeeze is probably closer to a hug than this.” </em></p><p>Dorn gently rubs himself against me. <strong><em>“Starting enjoy it quite a bit huh?” </em></strong>He smiles widely and I notice that he too is looking around. He doesn’t need a spell to protect his eyes though since he’s got this weird pair of secondary eyelids that’s quite translucent.</p><p><em>“I don’t know if you could call it enjoying yet, but I don’t mind it either.” </em>I let my eyes wander about. Her stomach looks kind of similar to her throat, albeit not nearly as smooth. It’s really little more than a cavity lined by powerful muscles covered in all sorts of liquids. As I lie down to get comfortable, I notice how well the stomach walls adapt to my body, it really feels like a rather soft bed. Once I stop moving, I can even feel myself sink in a little.</p><p><strong><em>“I see you two are safe and sound in there?” </em></strong>Skaftá asks us, sounding rather content.</p><p><em>“Sure am.” </em>I reply and wiggle around a little. <em>“Nice and warm in here and I get to snuggle with my brother. Not much more I could ask for.” </em>Dorn mimics my movements and rests his head next to mine. <strong><em>“Indeed.” </em></strong>He adds.</p><p>Mom make a sound of bemusement which gets greatly amplified because we’re inside her. The sound waves shake my whole body and make everything around me vibrate a little.</p><p><strong><em>“That’s good to hear. Now you two sleep well. It’s already way past your usual bed time.” </em></strong>The ball of light begins to fade and as it fizzles out of existence so does the invisible sphere that I had been holding.</p><p><em>“Good night mom. I hope you can find restful sleep as well.” </em>I slowly close my eyes.</p><p>
  <em>“Just one last thing, when you asked us if we were safe and sound, I realised that this is probably one of the safer places to be for me. No one can reasonably get to me and I can be sure you won’t be harming me either.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You’re right. In a way it is a rather safe space for you. And you can rest assured that my body won’t harm you in any way.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I see. It sounds absolutely ridiculous but still true… But I think it’s a good thing.” </em>My tiredness begins to overwhelm me, I can barely fight back anymore.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It is a good thing indeed. Now stop fighting sleep and let yourself drift off into the world of dreams Arya.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>She doesn’t need to tell me twice as I’m already half asleep by the time she finishes her sentence and not much later I’m out like a light.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 18</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A little bit later I find myself floating in an endless, white, abyss. The light seems to be coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. There’s no floor and no ceiling and my sight loses itself in the distance. It appears this space is devoid of any physical objects outside of me.</p><p><em>“What kind of nightmare did I get myself into now?” </em>I wonder quietly, it doesn’t feel like one, yet I already have that foreboding feeling.</p><p>I try to take a step forward, wondering if I’ll end up falling or not. But I end up feeling like I’ve never moved to begin with. The absence of any reference points makes it impossible to tell. For all I know I could run a thousand miles in one direction and not feel like I moved an inch.</p><p>Suddenly the air in front of me begins to shimmer, as if it were rising from the hot asphalt on a summer day.</p><p>Moments later I think I can see something take shape within the shimmering air current.</p><p><strong><em>“Sorry for the wait sister, your brain kept me from joining your dream.” </em></strong>The air grows much more turbulent and suddenly Dorn appears before me. Or at least I think it’s him. The voice in my head sounds like him but what stands before me barely shares any semblance with him.</p><p>It stands on two legs and its body shape is very much like that of a slender human. In some ways it does remind me of my own body, albeit it appears to be entirely genderless. Its skin has been replaced with scales that are awfully similar in colour to those of my brother. It has a tail growing from where I presume the tailbone to be that drags a few feet (</p><p>~1m) behind it on the floor. Its neck is much too long to be human as well. Atop it sits a head that looks almost exactly like Dorns. While its shoulder height is almost the same as mine, thanks to its long neck its head ends up almost a foot (~30cm) higher than mine. A pair of wings also poke out from behind its shoulders, they look like an odd mix of their wings in the real world and those that had grown on my back in a dream years ago. It’s hands and feet look rather human too, it even has thumbs, but it appears the last join of each finger and toe has been replaced by a claw.</p><p>I look at it with wide eyes, full of disbelief. <em>“What are you?” </em></p><p>It stares back with eyes just as confused as mine. <strong><em>“It’s me your brother, Dorn.” </em></strong>It takes half a step back and spreads its wings.</p><p><em>“But you look nothing like him. At all.” </em>I look this odd figure up and down one more time wondering if my eyes are betraying me.</p><p><strong><em>“Is it because I took on a different shape than normal?” </em></strong>Suddenly the figures outlines blur and melt and just a moment later I see Dorn stand before me, looking exactly how I remember him.</p><p><strong><em>“See, it’s just me.” </em></strong>He smiles and tries to stand up on his hind legs to imitate his previous form, though he struggles to keep balance. <strong><em>“It’s a dream so I can be any shape or form I want to be. And so can you, if you want.” </em></strong></p><p>I furrow my eyebrows and look him up and down again. <em>“That does make sense, but I was quite taken aback by the sudden change of shape. How come you decided to present yourself as an anthropomorphic version of yourself?”</em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I had some plans for tonight and felt a more human like appearance could be helpful for that.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>He drops to all fours again and looks up at me.</p><p>
  <em>“I wonder what those plans are but also, can you really turn into anything you want at will?” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Sure can, watch.” </em></strong>He suddenly begins rapidly growing until he’s basically the same size as our parents, then his scales begin to slowly change colours to a vivid hue of deep purple. Then his outlines begin to melt and shrink again as he suddenly turns into a seal. I quickly take a step back and stare at him completely flabbergasted.</p><p>He robs around a little and rolls onto his back and slaps his “hands” onto his chest making something of a clapping sound. All the while making a sound that sounds like a seal’s version of a laugh. <em>“What the hell are you doing?”</em></p><p>It feels like he has lost his mind or something.</p><p>Once again, he begins to change shape, and before long I find myself standing before an admirable giant spruce. <em>“Okay now that’s too much.” </em>I look up at the tree’s crown wondering if he’ll hide a face up there but no, for all I know this is your standard run of the mill spruce.</p><p>I can’t help but laugh a little and smile. Suddenly a cone falls onto my head but when I look up there’s nothing.</p><p>Another cone hits the floor right next to me, making me jump to the side. <em>“That has to be intentional at this point.” </em>I quickly run backwards to get out of his reach.</p><p>Not long after he begins to change shape again and returns to his anthropomorphic self.</p><p><strong><em>“Why did you have to be a spoilsport.” </em></strong>He pretends to be upset with me and turns his head away. <em>“I don’t know but I just feel like having cones dropped onto my head isn’t exactly my definition of fun.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I couldn’t think of any reason why you’d not enjoy that.” </em></strong>He sticks out his tongue.</p><p>I roll my eyes and shake my head. <em>“Anyway, what was your plan for tonight. You said you had one.” </em></p><p>Dorn starts smiling happily. <strong><em>“Oh yes I did. Remember how I talked about wanting to explore human made structures, houses as you usually call them. But that it probably wasn’t going to happen because by the time we’d get to do anything like that I’d be way too large.” </em></strong></p><p>I silently nod along. <strong><em>“Well I figured since you have memories of them, we could go explore them that way.”</em></strong></p><p> A smile spreads across my lips. <em>“We can do that for sure. But why the human appearance?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I wanted to experience these buildings the same way a human would, so I became one.” </em></strong>He pauses for a split second. <strong><em>“Oh, and another thing that played a much more significant role.”</em></strong></p><p>He takes a big step towards me such that he’s a mere foot away from me and spreads his arms wide.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I’ve noticed your thoughts about this thing your kind calls a hug and how you never really got to experience one and how it symbolizes love and comfort in one another.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I have a hunch of what he’s hinting at, but I refuse to accept that yet. <strong><em>“And since mom, dad and I keep talking about how we love you I figured I’d use this gesture to put some actions behind my words. I know we can do this hugging thing in the real world too but it’s not the real thing.” </em></strong></p><p>I feel my knees get a little wobbly as I lock eyes with him. <em>“Really? You took on this form just to give me a hug?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Well it wasn’t that hard so I figured it couldn’t hurt.” </em></strong> He keeps standing there with his eyes wide open.</p><p>I take a cautious half step forward and carefully wrap my arms around him. I feel his arms warp around my back and hug me close as well. He rests his head on my shoulder and rubs it against mine. I sigh and hug him a little tighter. <em>“This is nice.” </em>Slowly, I close my eyes and just take in the feeling. I feel like I’m truly close to a person for the first time. Even if this person is just a figment of my imagination it feels indescribable. I can’t help but tear up a little. <em>“Why did it have to be so long before I could feel this for the first time.” </em></p><p>Dorn gently pats my back and hugs me tightly as well. <strong><em>“But it happened finally.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“And I’m so happy.” </em>A whimper escapes me. <em>“Thank you, brother.” </em>I whisper and rub his back. It still feels surreal to be hugging someone.</p><p>We stay in our embrace for quite a while, both of us unmoving.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter 19</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If I could I’d never let go of him but both of us know very well that all good things come to an end.</p><p>With a heavy sigh I loosen my embrace a little before completely letting go. <em>“Thank you so much for showing me what I was missing out on.” </em></p><p>Dorn lets go as well and takes a small step back. He doesn’t answer and just happily smiles at me.</p><p>I place a hand on the side of his head and caress his scales while looking deep into his eyes.</p><p>A warm smile appears on my lips and I slowly shut my eyes before dropping my forehead against the tip of his snout. He murmurs happily and places a hand on my shoulder. <strong><em>“I’m glad I could do this for you. Now shall we get going?” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Mhmm.” </em>I take a deep breath and take a half step back. <em>“Where are we going?” </em></p><p>Dorn thinks for a moment. <strong><em>“The library of your former school? You have the most detailed memory of it.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“I had a hunch you’d suggest that…I’m not sure what to think. I do have most of my erm…positive memories there but at the same time the association with school isn’t…great.” </em>
</p><p>Just the thought of what might happen leaves me nervous.</p><p><strong><em>“Don’t worry sister, I’m there with you and if any sort of nightmare tries to mess with you, I’ll make short work of it.” </em></strong>He flashes his teeth at me.</p><p>I sigh and chuckle. <em>“You’re right. Any time I had a nightmare you took quick care of it and in cases where even you got overwhelmed mom swooped in to save us.” </em>I straighten my back and take a few slow breaths. <em>“Let’s get to it then.” </em></p><p>Seconds later the white void around us begins to warp much like Dorns body did before and before I realize what’s happening, we find ourselves in front of the entrance to the library.</p><p>Dorn turns around and pushes the door open while I still stand there a little shocked by how accurate this all looks.</p><p>I slowly turn and look around. This is exactly how I remember this place. The small group of trees to the left standing between residential housing and the library, the school to the right forming an L with the library. The school’s gym behind me with its attached public bath. If I didn’t know better, I could believe this being real.</p><p>Fortunately, it’s already quite late in the day, school has been out for hours by now and just about everyone has left.</p><p>Thinking of it, I notice that humans appear to be completely absent. There’s no light in any of the flats, no cars on the carpark, no noise coming from the surrounding roads, nothing. Just the wind in the trees and the occasional Crow of Pidgeon.</p><p><strong><em>“Are you coming?” </em></strong>Dorn asks, still holding the door open for me.</p><p><em>“Yes, yes. Sorry I got a bit surprised by how accurate this looks and the lack of humans.” </em>I quickly follow him inside.</p><p>Much to my surprise the librarian is absent as well, I’m starting to think we might be the only two people in this whole world.</p><p>Dorn takes the lead and almost runs into the maze of shelves that is this library. He appears to be really excited to have a look around this place. I idly follow him around, my eyes just wandering about the shelves, looking for books I recognize.</p><p>My brother keeps running around the shelves, just exploring the place for a little. Even though we’ve already been here once before, but who am I to judge. I’m no better in at least one aspect either.</p><p>Eventually he slows down and starts taking books out of the shelves and flipping through them. I watch as he skims through books in just minutes, wondering if he’s actually reading them.</p><p>Right when he finishes another one, before he can grab another one, I ask him:<em> “Do you actually read these or just skim them?”</em></p><p>He pauses for a split second before turning towards me. <strong><em>“I do read them, why would you think I’d just skim them?” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“You just go through them so insanely fast I couldn’t believe your brain actually had time to process the text.”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Well, it’s a dream but my brain also processes things a little more quickly than yours.” </em></strong>He winks at me and grabs the next book.</p><p>I lightly shake my head and chuckle. <em>“What else did I expect.” </em>After watching him for a little longer I decide to go off on my own. I don’t know what I’m looking for but that doesn’t matter to me.</p><p>As I slowly wander around the rows of bookshelves, I keep reading the spines of the books. A fair few appear familiar to me. Then I suddenly stop as my eyes fall onto one book in particular titled “A list of sexual fetishes and anomalies and their symptoms – Fifth edition”</p><p><em>“Oh, you cursed stupid book.” </em>I pull it out from the shelve. <em>“Look what you got me into.” </em>I flip it open and skim a few of the entries.</p><p><em>“I still don’t know if I should hate myself for being too curious or if I should be glad that I got my hands on this stupid book.” </em>Quickly, I flip through the pages towards V.</p><p>Once my eyes fall onto that one word I pause for a moment and stare off into the distance.</p><p>
  <em>“To think so much could hinge on me reading one entry in a book I wasn’t supposed to read years ago.” </em>
</p><p>I return my gaze to the book and read through the entry once more. <em>“It’s just a few hundred words and yet they have had such an impact. Makes me wonder how often just a few words had a big impact on the someone.” </em>I slam the book shut and put it back into the shelve.</p><p><em>“Oh well, it happened, and I think with time I’ll come around to it and then I’ll be glad I read this.” </em>I’m about to continue walking around when I notice a shimmer of red at the top of the shelve. I take a closer look, but it appears to be gone. <em>“Hold up.” </em>I keep staring. <em>“Stop trying to hide Dorn.” </em></p><p>The room falls silent for a few seconds, then I hear him shift around atop the shelve.</p><p><em>“Why were you hiding up there?” </em>I ask him as his head comes into view. <strong><em>“I was just curious about what you were doing and didn’t want to interrupt you.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“But then why did you hide when I spotted you?” </em>He begins hops off the shelf and lands next to me with a thud.</p><p><strong><em>“Reflexes, sorry sister.” </em></strong>He smiles and blinks slowly.</p><p>I nod and smile back. <em>“Alright then.” </em></p><p>Surprisingly he doesn’t mention the book I had just put back and simply keeps going with his exploration.</p><p>We spend quite a lot of time in the library however eventually Dorn seems to be done with the place and asks me if I’d want to go elsewhere.</p><p>
  <em>“I wouldn’t mind. I know this place pretty well already so just about anywhere would be a nice change.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“What do you think of going to some sort of human home? Not your old one obviously.” </em> </strong>
</p><p><em>“Uh…Sure. As long as it’s different enough.” </em>I cautiously answer.</p><p><strong><em>“I’ll make sure of that.” </em></strong>He smiles and begins heading towards the exit.</p><p>I’m a little surprised that he doesn’t just change our surroundings but figure he might have some sort of plan, so I follow him quickly.</p><p>He stops outside and waits for me to catch up. We both stand there in silence for a bit before he turns his head towards me and looks at me expectantly.</p><p>I look at him confused, wondering what he’s trying to tell me.</p><p><strong><em>“I figured since we’re already in a city we could fly to our destination.” </em></strong>He answers to my confused stare.</p><p>I quickly look over my shoulder to make sure I didn’t just suddenly grow wings. <em>“And how did you think I am going to catch some air?” </em>I ask when I see a clear absence of wings on my back.</p><p><strong><em>“I’ll carry you.” </em></strong>He replies almost immediately.</p><p>
  <em>“How exactly? You’re just going to pluck me off the floor and fly away?”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Exactly. I can either carry you like this, or you can ride me piggyback style.” </em></strong>As he says those words, he quickly rakes a step towards me and places one arm in the hollow of my knees. Then pushes my knees forwards to make me keel over backwards where he catches me with his other arm and quickly lifts me up.</p><p>This all happens so quickly I take a moment to figure out what happened. When the realization hits me, I can’t help but blush a little. <em>“That was unnecessary.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“You think?” </em></strong>He cradles me a little before carefully placing me on the ground again. <strong><em>“Piggyback it is then I guess?” </em></strong>He grins and bends his knees a little to make it easier for me to hop on.</p><p><em>“Yes. I normally wouldn’t mind being picked up like that. It was kind of comfortable and stuff but please don’t do that out of the blue again.” </em>I step over his tail and prepare to hop onto his back.</p><p><strong><em>“Noted.” </em></strong>He replies and braces himself. <strong><em>“Jump on whenever you want.” </em></strong></p><p>I take a moment to make sure I can land on his back without hurting his wings before committing to the jump.</p><p>I try my best to keep my chest off his back to stay out of the way of his wing sand quickly wrap my arms around his neck while clinging to his hip with my legs.</p><p>He’s quick to get his hands under my thighs to prop me up and spreads his wings.</p><p><strong><em>“Got a good hold on me?” </em></strong>He asks as he takes a couple quick steps forward. <em>“Feels like it.” </em>I reply as I tighten my grip on his neck a little.</p><p><strong><em>“Then get ready for takeoff.” </em></strong>Dorn quickens his pace a lot. Before I know it, he’s running faster than I could ever imagine. Then he suddenly jumps into the air and begins flapping his wings as hard as he can.</p><p>Surprisingly he can keep us both in the air, though I can tell that he’s struggling a bit.</p><p>Once his flight stabilizes, he starts gliding along the roofs, his eyes fixed on the horizon.</p><p><strong><em>“If you spot something that looks interesting, tell me and we’ll land there. I’m not too particular about it.” </em></strong>He sounds very focused and I can tell that the extra weight is putting a lot of strain on him.</p><p><em>“I’ll be sure to make it quick.”</em> I reply and begin scanning the houses below.</p><p>Most of them are just cookie cutter standard family homes that I fear might bring up old memories.</p><p>Then I remember a villa of sorts that sat at the edge of this residential housing area that I always thought to be oddly placed.</p><p>
  <em>“Oh, but I don’t know how it looks on the inside…” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“That’ll be fine. I can fill in a lot from what you saw from the outside and the rest I can simply draw from memories of similar places or your expectations.” </em></strong>He veers to the right, towards where I remember this villa standing.</p><p>Soon it appears in the midst of all these other houses. To be fair it sits right at the transition from cookie cutter houses to more diverse styles of homes.</p><p>Once we land Dorn immediately lets go off my thighs and I quickly drop off his back. He appears quite winded and exhausted.</p><p>Before I can do anything, he takes a deep breath and straightens up. <strong><em>“Time to go in.” </em></strong>He says and makes his way along the driveway.</p><p>While he’s trying to hide it, I can quite clearly tell that he overexerted himself. Though I can’t figure out how since this is a dream but maybe it’s because of how deeply this is rooted in reality?</p><p>I figure it’s not worth pressing the issue and just follow him.</p><p>As we approach the front door, I remember how this placed used to be decorated quite lavishly for the holidays. Almost to the point of it being too much for my taste but still nice to look at. Or at least that’s how I remember it from my preteen days. Later I was too much of a human husk to notice.</p><p>Dorn rattles the front door handle, trying to get it open but the door won’t budge.</p><p><em>“People do usually lock their doors when no one’s home.” </em>I say as I stop beside him.</p><p>He grumbles and takes a step back. I can sense him contemplating just breaking the door down.</p><p><em>“Let’s not, even if it’s just a dream.” </em>I look around for any open windows or similar.</p><p>
  <em>“Can’t you just will open this door? Or use magic?” </em>
</p><p>Suddenly the door clicks and when I press the handle again it simply opens.</p><p><em>“Sure, hope that was your doing.” </em>I say while peering at him.</p><p>Luckily, I notice a slight glow in his eyes. <strong><em>“Yep, that was my doing indeed.” </em></strong>He heads inside and I follow suit.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Chapter 20</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The inside opens up to a quite wide hallway with a roughly ten-foot (3m) ceiling. The walls are painted white with stucco or however you called it at the transition from wall to ceiling. A tall dresser and a bunch of coat hangers stand to the left and right of the entrance followed with two pairs of doors going off the sides and stairs leading up and down at the end of the hallway.</p><p><em>“So, it really only has two floors. I wasn’t ever sure if a home with ceilings this high existed.” </em>I let my eyes wander about but there really isn’t much to see.</p><p>By the time I get my attention of the stucco Dorn has already went off on his own. I close my eyes and send out my mental feelers to figure out where he went to. Before I can get that far though, I hear a running tap from one of the rooms.</p><p>I head towards what I presume to be the kitchen and as I walk through the doorway, I see him messing around with the water coming from the tap.</p><p><strong><em>“Does every human house have this kind of access to clear water?” </em></strong>He doesn’t take his eyes off the faucet.</p><p><em>“Most for sure. Might be some less fortunate places where it isn’t standard. Thank our fragile bodies for that, can’t just go drink from a nearby puddle if we need to.” </em>I chuckle, thinking of how they can probably drink straight sewage and be fine.</p><p><strong><em>“Your kind really is resourceful when there’s a big issue.” </em></strong>He plays with the temperature setting of the faucet. <strong><em>“Though I do wonder what this warm water is for?” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“A few things really. Warm water cleans a little better and some people really hate touching cold water, I guess. Oh, and it boils a little faster, so I used it to get food done faster.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“That is quite useful then.” </em></strong>He shuts off the tap and starts rifling through the cabinets. Most of them just contain assorted dishes, pots, pans and what have you.</p><p>Soon he opens the fridge and pauses for a moment.</p><p><strong><em>“I saw these things in your memories too. How come you humans don’t hunt for yourself anymore?” </em></strong>He inspects the contents of the fridge.</p><p>
  <em>“Well the way our society works doesn’t really allow us to dedicate hours of our day to foraging for food. We rather spend our time doing stuff for people so we can get paid and use that money to then pay people to do the hunting and farming for us. Turns out at large scales this is more efficient than doing it yourself. Or so I’m told.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Sounds complicated. And these things are there to make your food last, longer right?” </em></strong>He shuts the fridge door and turns towards me.</p><p><em>“Yup, bacteria and fungi don’t like replicating in the cold, so food takes longer to spoil. We also discovered that some things taste better cold so that’s another use for it.” </em>I watch him rummage around the kitchen some more, watching his thoughts closely. Not because I worry, he’d break something but rather out of curiosity.</p><p>Turns out he has some quite funny names for things. Flameless fireplace for the hob, Mysterious noisy hot box for the microwave, Magic very hot box for the oven, Makeshift claws for cutlery, Cold food shelf for refrigerator and Not for living things cleaning box for dishwasher.</p><p>
  <em>“You should have an idea of how these work, since we share memories. No magic involved, just physics.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I know but I still view them as your version of magic. Exploiting the laws of nature to make your life easier. It’s not that different from what we do with magic.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Dorn notices the pet food bowels standing next to the counter. <strong><em>“What is it with your humans keeping other animals around? I remember your kind treating them almost like family most of the time.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Kind of like what your parents did with me huh?” </em>I chuckle and shake my head. <em>“They used to have some sort of significance way back in the day and we just kept them around as companions.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“But you’re different, you’re family. Not just some companion we keep around for entertainment.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“You’d be surprised to see how some people treat their pets. They’re basically family at least.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I know Arya but could you do all the things you did with us with a pet?”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Hmm… No, but I’d think that’s more because there’s no pets that come even close to your kind. Haven’t seen a flying dog that you can ride yet, or a fire breathing cat, or a telepathic horse. Or any pet that fills any of those criteria for that matter. But it also really doesn’t matter. I know you guys view me as family and not just a pet.” </em>He seems to be satisfied and moves on to messing around with the chairs. Though his wings and tails keep him from finding a comfortable sitting position.</p><p>Eventually he gives up, he seems to think for a moment but then simply moves on.</p><p><em>“What were you thinking about?” </em>I ask as he heads out of the kitchen and into the room on the other end of the hallway. <strong><em>“Thought about maybe making my tail disappear to more comfortably sit on that chair but decided against it.” </em></strong></p><p>Before I can poke him further about, he has discovered the TV in, what turns out the be, the living room.</p><p>It’s a bit more decorated than the hallway, though not much. A large table lined by about a dozen chairs fills two thirds of the room, with a couch and TV taking up most of the rest of the space. A few shelves with fancier silverware and stuff line the walls as well as some potted plants.</p><p><strong><em>“These things have been the most fascinating thing you humans came up with. Tv’s and computers. How does one even begin to come up with the concept of one much less the electronic innards of it?” </em></strong>He’s intently staring at the static on the screen. <strong><em>“This is what I mean when I call things magic. Even when I have some idea of how they work there are still a lot of aspects that completely elude me or that I can’t imagine how someone would have the idea for them.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“It’s less that one person had the idea for all of it, but rather that it kept procedurally building up until we eventually got TVs and PCs out of it.” </em>I watch him stare at the static for a bit. <em>“Think of it as something similar to evolution. It started as single celled soup in the oceans and somehow turned into well this.” </em>I point at myself. <em>“Similarly, there was the telegraph system at first, which was basically just a bunch of electric impulses and a wire. And there probably was an analogue version of it before that. People kept optimizing the telegraph system for more data throughput and automating the process more and more until eventually it could transmit audio. Some time and more of the same improvements and suddenly they could add a greyscale picture and not much later colour as well. Computers are probably underwent through a comparable process but I’m not well versed in their history.” </em></p><p>I notice that the TV now actually displays a picture and Dorn has sat down on the couch. It seems to be much better suited for him to sit comfortably.</p><p><strong><em>“Still it must have taken ages and some really smart people to make these.” </em></strong>He appears to be enthralled by the news, though the host doesn’t seem to be saying anything meaningful.</p><p><em>“It sure did.” </em>I decide to join him on the couch and we both just sit there for a bit. Staring at the screen as the news host speaks, though no actual words ever leave his mouth.</p><p><em>“Must be because this is a dream and Dorn can’t make up anything meaningful for the news host to say.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>We end up leaning against one another, each having one hand rest on the others shoulder.</p><p>Eventually the screen begins to turn staticky again and then slowly fades to black.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s interesting how you humans have built so many things to make your life easier and more convenient.” </em></strong>Dorn removes his hand from my shoulder and slowly stands up.</p><p><em>“We really like our creature comforts okay.” </em>I stand up as well and wait for him to head off again.</p><p>Dorn takes a moment longer to have a look around the living room before heading back to the hallway, making his way towards the back</p><p>He takes the stairs down into the basement. Apparently, he doesn’t need the lights down there as he disappears into the darkness. I try to follow but end up nearly running into walls a couple times while looking for a light switch.</p><p>Thankfully, Dorn notices and flicks on the light for me. <strong><em>“Careful there sister.” </em></strong>He winks at me and keeps exploring.</p><p>The basement is mostly storage for all sorts of things, it even has a wine cellar by the looks of it. Outside of that we find a pretty large indoor pool and attached sauna. <strong><em>“You humans even built indoor lakes huh. All for</em></strong><strong><em> that convenience. Also, what exactly is the purpose of that oversized hot box? Cooking yourself alive doesn’t sound like something I’d be all too enthused to do.” </em></strong></p><p>I chuckle and smile. <em>“I have no idea either. It’s one of those social activities humans just do. I guess some enjoy the intense heat and sweating. And I’ve read that there’s supposed to be some health benefit to it as well.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Still sounds uncomfortable.”</em></strong> He still sticks his head inside and wrinkles his nose. <strong><em>“I can tell people have been sweating in here…lots.” </em></strong></p><p>He quickly heads back to the stairs and makes his way up to the first floor.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter 21</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dorn reaches the first floor quite a bit before me, he must have been taking several steps at once. When I reach the top of the stairs I pause for a moment and listen closely for any noise he might make.</p><p>Unsurprisingly he doesn’t make a single sound, so I have to go look for him.</p><p>The first floor turns out to be the private living quarters of this villa, it has a pair of bedrooms with attached bathrooms as well as what looks to be an office and library and an entertainment room of sorts. I can’t quite figure out what to call it.</p><p>Finally, I find him in the walk-in closet of one of the bedrooms. He’s currently holding a pair of pants and staring at them.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You humans really do get creative with your replacement scales…err fur or whatever.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>He puts them down and picks up a nearby button down shirt. <strong><em>“So many different things.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I heard some humans even define part of their personality through them. Never quite understood why but if they want to, I won’t judge.” </em>I watch him from the doorway.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s really interesting how your kind can take just about anything and do so many different things with it. Make it a creative medium, study it their entire life or so many other things.” </em></strong>Dorn flips the shirt around and plays with the seams of it.</p><p><em>“You really think we’re that fascinating? Almost makes me feel like we’re just an ant colony in your terrarium and you’re watching us through the glass.” </em>I smile and chuckle.</p><p><strong><em>“In a sense that’s probably a good analogy. Similarly, to how you’ve been fascinated by my kind.” </em></strong>He puts the shirt back down and heads back out into the bedroom.</p><p>He makes a beeline for the bed and jumps right onto it, the bed creaks loudly as he slams into it.</p><p><strong><em>“I can see why your kind enjoys these so much. With my current form I can’t imagine sleeping on the ground every day.” </em></strong>He rolls onto his back and stares at the ceiling.</p><p>I decide to join him and carefully lie down, making sure his wings are out of the way beforehand.</p><p><em>“It’s pretty great isn’t it.” </em>I get comfortable and stare at the ceiling as well.</p><p>
  <em>“Sleeping used to be my favourite time of the day. For all the wrong reasons.”</em>
</p><p>Dorn just nods and puts one arm around me. <strong><em>“But now you have a better more comfortable bed without all those terrible associations.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I truly am fortunate to have Skaftá and Scáthán as parents now.” </em>I too place one arm around him. <em>“And you’re probably the best brother I could hope to have.” </em></p><p>I feel him pull me a closer. <strong><em>“And you’re the best sister I could ask for. Though Coille is nice too.” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“Obviously. Her and Aonar are nice too.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Sadly, it’s time to wake up soon…” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Already? Didn’t feel like we were in here for long. Then again, time is a fickle thing in our dreams.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It very much is. But I’m happy I got to see a human home from the inside. It isn’t quite like the real thing but close enough.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“It sure was nice to watch you explore and be excited and intrigued by all these human-made things. I hope we can do some exploration in the real world some time.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“I’m sure that can be arranged.” </em></strong>He sounds very content and happy.</p><p>I turn my eyes towards him and notice that the walls of the room had disappeared. <em>“Oh, we’re in the process of waking up huh?” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Seems like it.” </em></strong>Dorn turns his head too and nods slowly.</p><p><em>“Can we just get one last hug in?” </em>I ask after a brief pause.</p><p><strong><em>“Definitely.” </em></strong>He turns onto his side and wraps his other arm around me as well, hugging me close.</p><p>I put my other arm around him as well and hug him tightly. Tears well up in my eyes as the room has shrinks down to just the bed. <em>“Thank you.” </em>I close my eyes and rest my head against his scales, knowing that when I open my eyes again, I’ll be back in the real world.</p><p>He hugs me a little tighter and pats my back.</p><p>I don’t want to open my eyes again but before long the thumping of moms’ heart pierces through the silence of the dream. I am awake again.</p><p>Then I feel something rub against me. I carefully move my hands a little and notice that I somehow managed to wrap them around my brother. <strong><em>“Good morning sister.” </em></strong>He greets me and I feel his paws on my back. <strong><em>“Enjoyed the hug?” </em></strong></p><p>I slowly nod and squeeze him tightly. <em>“It was really nice.” </em>I quietly think to myself.</p><p>Dorn hugs me tightly as well and wraps his tail around me leg. <strong><em>“Very good. I enjoyed it too.” </em></strong></p><p>We both lie still for a bit, listening to our mother’s heartbeat. I also notice her stomach walls slowly shifting beneath me, a very slow churning motion.</p><p><em>“I wonder if she’s awake already. She usually is up way before us.” </em>I try to sense her mind, which really isn’t hard as somehow being inside her body amplifies it.</p><p>
  
</p><p>I do my best to not make any actual contact with her mind and just look in from the outside. Turns out it’s much easier said than done and I can barely see more than a hazy turmoil of thoughts. <em>“Mmmh…If she were awake, she’d probably have greeted us already, though I doubt she’ll be asleep much longer.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Even if she doesn’t. I don’t mind spending some more time in here with you.” </em></strong>Dorn comments.</p><p><em>“I really don’t mind it either. Actually, now that I’m more awake I’m feeling really well rested and energetic. This has been the most restful sleep in…years… at this point.” </em>I pause briefly. <em>“And in a dragon’s stomach of all places.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Well that speaks for you getting used to it right? You’re not scared anymore and can now enjoy it and get some good rest.” </em></strong>He makes some happy sounding noise and rubs his head against mine.</p><p>
  <em>“I wouldn’t say I wasn’t getting good rest before, just not the best, I guess. It also helps that I didn’t have to sleep on the ground tonight, this feels a lot more like waking up back then. Well if you’re willing to ignore some things.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“We should also probably use our makeshift mattress more…We put so much effort into building </em>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <em>it but then you just end up sleeping on the ground anyway.”</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Now that you mention it, I almost forgot that that thing existed.” </em>I shrug and sigh. <em>“I somehow always end up cosying up to you and falling asleep right then and there</em><em>.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Maybe I should start carrying you over to it then? I should be able to do that by now.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I don’t know how often that will be necessary anymore. I have a hunch it won’t be much.” </em>I smirk a little. <em>“Also come to think of it, this is much better than waking up in my bed back then. I’m not dreading the day that lies ahead anymore. I’m actually looking forward to it for once.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Oh? You sound quite sure that this will be becoming a frequent occurrence. I won’t mind it either. Where ever you go, I’ll follow you.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I quietly laugh and shake my head. <em>“Even if that means getting swallowed whole… I mean that does prove that you’re a dragon of your word beyond the shadow of a doubt.” </em></p><p>Dorn sounds quite amused as well. <strong><em>“Why would I say anything that I don’t mean?” </em></strong></p><p>
  <em>“True, why would you exaggerate or lie.” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“I wouldn’t have anything to gain from that.” </em></strong>We both fall silent again, though not for long.</p><p><strong><em>“Good morning you two lovebugs.” </em></strong>Dorn and I get shaken a little as Skaftá stretches.</p><p><strong><em>“Morning mom.” </em></strong>We reply in unison.</p><p><strong><em>“I see you two had a rather good nights sleep.” </em></strong>She settles down again and I can hear her heart speed up a little.</p><p><em>“The best sleep of my life I want to say.” </em>I stretch as much as I can in this confined space.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Good to hear. Tell me when you two want out.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Not quite yet mom, unless you want out brother. Oh also, out of curiosity, can you feel me move about and push against your stomach walls?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Usually not, you’ d need to push quite hard for me to feel anything. Don’t really have many nerve endings in there.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“I figured as much.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Though I can feel you two going down my throat and sliding into my stomach. That’s probably my gut telling me that food has arrived, however you two aren’t food obviously.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I remember how it felt when I swallowed too much food at once. I could feel it all the way down my throat too, it hurt quite a bit.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It does kind of feel like that, except it doesn’t hurt since our throats are a lot stretchier than yours.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’ve figured as much, seeing how you can gobble down a whole cow without chewing it must be.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Well, those also don’t exactly reach our stomach fully intact. The muscles are powerful enough to crush them down to size. Don’t worry though, you’re too small even together with your brother.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“That’s mildly reassuring.” </em>I cautiously reply.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You’ve been through that three times now and it’s never been more than a relatively gentle squeeze. Also, when you’re back out, we can do some measuring if you want, you only run the risk of getting your bones broken when you’re wider than my neck.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Don’t think that’ll take any measuring, I’m pretty sure there’s no way.” </em>I chuckle lightly and notice that the liquid level had increased a little since I woke up.</p><p>My heart drops and I need to force myself to breathe steadily. <em>“Is this a reason to be concerned mom?” </em>I ask with barely contained panic.</p><p><strong><em>“No, it’s just saliva since I’m awake now and my body is producing more of it. If it were gastric juices, you’d be feeling it already. As long as it doesn’t tingle or burn, you’re fine.” </em></strong>She replies reassuringly.</p><p>A few slow breaths later I’m feeling more in control of myself. <em>“Alright, good to know. I’d still like to be out for now I think.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Okay, prepare yourself then.” </em></strong> Skaftás stomach already begins to contract a little.</p><p>My heart quickens again but I tell myself that soon everything will be fine. <strong><em>“Don’t think there’s much preparing to do, we’re already basically glued together.” </em></strong>Dorn says and nuzzles me. <strong><em>“Trust me Arya, everything is alright.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly and grip him tight as moms’ stomach rapidly contracts more and begins squeezing us upwards. A moment later we’re forced back into her throat which quickly pushes us back upwards into her mouth.</p><p>I sigh a sigh of relief when I feel us slide onto her tongue. She keeps us in her mouth for a little bit to let some of the saliva sticking to us run off of us. <strong><em>“See, everything is okay.” </em></strong>Dorn says as I wipe my eyes clean. <em>“I never doubted you.” </em>Finally, for the first time since going in here yesterday I can open my eyes again, not that there is much to see at the moment. I also now feel safe enough to let go of my brother and lie on my back for a little.</p><p><em>“Oh boy, now for the uncomfortable part.” </em>I think to myself as I remember what comes next.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chapter 22</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Not a second later she dumps us both into the ocean rather unceremoniously. The sudden change in temperature makes my arms and legs lock up and I feel myself slowly sinking. I try to move but my body won’t obey me.</p><p>Panic quickly grabs hold of my mind as I feel my chest tighten up. I call out for my brother to help me. My field of vision begins to shrink as I run out of oxygen, at the edge of it, I notice a burst of bubbles. I pray that it’s either my brother or mom coming to save me.</p><p>Right at that moment my body suddenly figures out how to swim and I dart back to the surface as fast as I can, disregarding the burning in my arms and legs.</p><p>The instant I break through the surface I greedily suck air into my lungs, inhaling a bunch of water in the process. I hack and cough in between gasps for air. <em>“Please don’t ever do that again mom.” </em></p><p>Somehow, I manage to keep my head above the surface.</p><p><strong><em>“I am so, so incredibly sorry little one.” </em></strong>Her voice sounds pained and worried. <strong><em>“I didn’t mean to drown you.” </em></strong>She quickly grabs me out of the water with her mouth and drops me onto her back.</p><p>I gratefully cling to her and take a couple deep breaths. <em>“I-it’s okay, maybe. I don’t know.” </em>Dorn jumps out of the water and flies up to me. <strong><em>“Are you okay sister?” </em></strong>He lands behind me and looks at me just as worried as mom.</p><p>I cough a few more times and punch my sternum. <em>“I-I think so. But I just want to go home now.” </em></p><p>I’m not much more than a wet, shivering and shocked mess.</p><p>Skaftá had already begun to turn around by the time I finish my sentence. As the cliffs come into view, I notice that we’re not that far out at all. The water couldn’t be that deep. I also take note of how she appears to still be walking on solid ground.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“The water was about twelve feet deep where I dropped you two off. You were also only in the water for a second.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Only a second? Certainly didn’t feel like it.” </em>I curl up into a ball, trying to keep myself warm.</p><p><strong><em>“When panicked you experience time very differently.” </em></strong>I feel myself relax a little as she enters the cave. The worst is over for now.</p><p>Skaftá wraps her tail around me and carefully places me on the ground. At the same time, I can feel a familiar warmth creep into me, she’s already working her magic to warm me up.</p><p>What little water remained on my skin quickly dries off as well, luckily it seems that my panicked struggles washed off most saliva and junk so there’s little to no residue left behind.</p><p><em>“Lucky me, I guess.” </em>I quickly grab some clothes and get dressed.</p><p>Once I’m done, I grab the blanket and tightly wrap it around, I don’t feel like I’ll be getting out from under it for a while.</p><p>Dorn lies down next to me and drapes his wing over me. <strong><em>“You’re safe now.” </em></strong>He says reassuringly while he rests his head next to mine.</p><p><em>“I know.” </em>I rub my head against his and close my eyes for a moment. I can sense mom watching me closely and I can feel her pain. <em>“Don’t beat yourself too hard over it, mom. Things happen and I’m sure you would have pulled me out of the water before I could get hurt. I only panicked out of instinct, looking back now there wasn’t any danger.” </em></p><p>By now I’m feeling pretty calm again, though my heart is still beating harder than usual. <em>“I mean, knowing where we were coming from there was absolutely no reason to be worried about.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Just because you got away unscathed doesn’t lessen the distress you were under for that moment.” </em></strong>She lies down around us, her head not too far away from me.</p><p><em>“Still I’d liken it to accidentally scaring someone. Happens occasionally and for a moment that person is scared shitless but soon enough they figure out that there is no danger.” </em>I can feel her trying to come up with a counter argument. <em>“Let’s not argue more about hypotheticals, shall we? I trust you fully to keep me safe as long as you’re around. I may still wind up in scary situations, but I know I can be sure that you’ll be in control.” </em>I open my eyes again and look over to her.</p><p>Skaftá pauses for a moment. <strong><em>“Alright. I’m happy that you can trust me this much. I’ll still try and not place you in any terrifying situations.” </em></strong>She cracks a warm smile. <strong><em>“I’ll let you rest now. If you need anything from me, let me know.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“I sure will.” </em>I smile as well and stare at the ceiling again.</p><p>It’s quite a while before I feel the urge to get up and do anything. What remains of the day, I spend messing around with my mind. Dorn happily joins me in my efforts of strengthening my mental barrier and otherwise just watches me or snoozes around. As the morning turns into evening, I get more and more fidgety, I feel like I need to do something with all this energy, though I don’t know what. <em>“Can’t exactly go out and do something productive with it, too late for that now.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“Why would you have to do something productive with it? Why not just play around?” </em></strong>Dorn asks suddenly.</p><p><em>“Uhm, I mean fair but wouldn’t playing with you be rather erm, one sided?” </em>I look down at him with wary eyes.</p><p><strong><em>“Possibly but I wouldn’t have to give my all right? We could play for the sake of playing, not to determine who’s the stronger one.” </em></strong>He stands up on his hind legs, leaving his head level with mine.</p><p><em>“Fair enough, there’s no question who would win a competition of strength at this point.” </em>I peer over at our mom. <em>“And we’re not alone so there’s no getting hurt for either of us.” </em></p><p>I smirk just a little and quickly take a step forward while stretching out my arms in an attempt to knock him over.</p><p>Sadly, he saw what I was planning and pushes against my hands with his front legs while I’ve got one foot off the ground, throwing me off balance instead.</p><p>I land on my behind, expecting him to jump me right away but nothing happens.</p><p><strong><em>“Not so fast sister.” </em></strong>He drops onto all fours again and winks at me. <strong><em>“That won’t work on me anymore.” </em></strong></p><p>I grumble and get back up. <em>“Just you wait until I can properly read your mind.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“I’m very much looking forward to it.” </em></strong>He grins and begins to hop around me in circles.</p><p><em>“Not this again.” </em>I think to myself as I try my best to keep track of him but as expected start losing him before long. <em>“Not this time.” </em>I think to myself and wait just a second after completely losing sight of him before leaping in a random direction while trying to keep my head low.</p><p>As I land, I hear the claws of my brother scrape over the rocks and I can hear him quietly growl.</p><p>Out of frustration he launches himself at me again, this time I won’t even try to dodge him.</p><p>I wait for him to commit to the jump before planting my feet on the ground. As soon as he’s within an arm’s reach of me I shove him aside and down with all my strength.</p><p>This works much better than expected and he crashes into the ground next to me with a thud.</p><p>The impact knocks the wind out of him, and he lies there stunned and motionless for a moment.</p><p><em>“Oh no…” </em>I worry that I may have knocked him out or worse but much to my relief I see him blink.</p><p><strong><em>“Good one sister.” </em></strong>His words come out slow and he sounds very winded. He feebly tries to stand back up on his shaky legs. <em>“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” </em>Even though he seems okay I can’t help but worry.</p><p><strong><em>“I’m fine.” </em></strong>He replies. He appears less shaky with every passing second. <strong><em>“Just need to catch my breath.” </em></strong>His chest visibly moves. <strong><em>“I must admit you’ve gotten a lot stronger as well sister.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Me? A lot stronger?” </em>I look at my arms. <em>“In which universe?” </em>I jokingly ask him.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No seriously, go check.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I shoot him a wary look and try to close my thumb and middle finger around my forearm. Usually there’d be about an inch (2,5cm) big gap between them.</p><p>Much to my surprise I find a gap nearly double in size. <em>“Oh…” </em>I think to myself and quickly check the other arm. <em>“Yep, that sure looks like bigger forearms to me.” </em>I decide to not think too much about it, in the end it did kind of make sense.</p><p>Not that I’m given much more time to think about it as my brother jumps and latches onto me in an attempt to throw me off balance.</p><p>I try to get him off me but once again he’s much too quick and nimble. Before long I feel myself keel over. In a last-ditch effort, I try to turn around such that Dorn ends up between me and the ground but it’s no use. I end up hitting the ground quite hard with him triumphantly sitting atop of me. Though since I had seen this coming, I had already braced myself and didn’t get the wind knocked out of me.</p><p>Almost immediately, I try to push him off me. He’s not having it and tries to keep me pinned to the ground.</p><p>We end up arm wrestling back and forth, I can tell he’s not giving it his all to keep this somewhat fair.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Chapter 23</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Every time I manage to overpower him, he tries a bit harder and before long I find myself on the ground again where he then lets off just enough to give me a chance to recover.</p><p>The scale tips back and forth like that for quite a while. As time passes, I notice Dorn tiring just a little, now instead of only having to try when I’m on top of him. It’s constant struggle for him as well. For a moment I have hope that I might endure longer than him but I’m starting to feel the burn as well. My arms, especially my shoulders are starting to give me hell.</p><p>Not much later, after Dorn pins me down once again, I try push him off, but my hands simply slip off his scales and my arms burn like they’re on fire. <em>“Alright… you win.” </em>I loosely place my arms around him.</p><p><strong><em>“Let’s call it a draw.” </em></strong>Judging by his reply he couldn’t have fought back much more either.</p><p>We lie in a pile, both breathing heavily. Me being all sweaty and him feeling noticeably warmer to the touch. <strong><em>“You put up a good fight still. I didn’t expect that.” </em></strong>He tells me after a little while.</p><p><em>“I did not think I’d be able to push you this far either.” </em>I reply and sigh.</p><p><strong><em>“You sure did push me to my limit, good job sister.” </em></strong>He rubs his head against mine.</p><p><strong><em>“Watching you both play I could tell that you both got much, much stronger. I’m especially surprised by you Arya. I hadn’t thought you’d be able to keep with Dorn, seeing how quickly he has been growing.” </em></strong>Skaftá adds.</p><p><em>“He’s growing quickly?” </em>I ask while turning my head towards her.</p><p><strong><em>“Exceptionally so, when your siblings return you should take a closer look. He did start of larger than both of them, but the gap has been steadily growing. And that doesn’t go for just his size either. His physical and magical capabilities are growing at a rate I haven’t seen or heard before.” </em></strong>She replies, sounding quite proud of him.</p><p>I look back up at Dorn, who’s almost beaming with pride.</p><p><em>“Oh, that’s pretty cool.” </em>I look at him with admiration in my eyes. <em>“How lucky I am to have you as my protective brother.” </em></p><p>Dorn doesn’t reply, he only snuggles up to me some more and murrs happily. <em>“Though I do have to ask, how come he is so out of the ordinary? I have absolutely nothing to compare him to.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“There’s probably multiple factors. One is him lucking out in the genetic lottery for sure. He wound up with more of his father than me but got what mattered of me. Scáthán has incredible strength and endurance even for a dragon and while I lack that I’m relatively capable with my mind and magic. Though I deviate from the average dragon less than he does. Dorn wound up with his strength and most of my mental acuity.” </em></strong>She pauses for a second as she moves a little closer to us. <strong><em>“On top of that it seems he’s very determined to grow up quickly so he can protect you better. Just that seems to accelerate his growth quite a bit over his siblings. You and him sharing memories and having closely linked minds appears to have helped him mature a quicker as well.” </em></strong></p><p>I gently stroke Dorns back. <em>“I hope I didn’t deprave him of a normal erm… childhood then.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“You didn’t. It’s a bit different from you humans. When your kind is forced to grow up quickly due to their circumstances that often ends up being traumatic. Dragons grow up differently and whether they mature faster or slower hardly affects them. If given a good enough reason we can simply will ourselves to grow up faster. It seems you gave Dorn all the reason he needed.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><strong><em>“Yes sister, it’s all right. Don’t worry about me, if this were affecting me negatively, I’d not be doing it. I just want to be my best self for you.” </em></strong>Dorn reassures me.</p><p><em>“Then I’ll try to be my best self for you as well.” </em>His words sting, but in a good way.</p><p><strong><em>“You’re also doing much better than I expected Arya. I don’t know why but you’re growing much stronger by the day as well. It might have something to do with your link to Dorn. Might make his magic energy rub off on you more quickly than it would have normally. But that’s little more than a guess.” </em></strong>She brushes her head against us and smiles. <strong><em>“You both can be proud of yourself.” </em></strong></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chapter 24</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>“Heh, thanks mom.” </em>I gently rub her head. <em>“Though I feel like I’ve barely done anything to get </em><em>here. It all just kind of…happened.” </em></p><p><strong> <em>“May I remind you of the countless hours spent sharpening your mind and recently learning how</em> </strong><strong><em>to hunt?” </em></strong>Skaftá reminds me.</p><p>
  <em>“Fair enough but those things aren’t directly related to what you talked about, are they?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Not necessarily but I feel that there’s a subtle link between them. I could be wrong though.” </em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“You? Being wrong? Are we talking about the same being?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“We aren’t infallible either little one. May I remind you of all the time I accidentally put you in danger?” </em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Well, I’d say making mistakes and being wrong are two different things, right? And up until now </em>
  <em>you’ve been right about everything.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong> <em>“Until now. There’s a lot of stuff out there that I don’t know or can only guess about.”</em> </strong>
</p><p><em>“Fair enough. Though I’ll believe it when I see it happen.” </em>I chuckle and sigh.</p><p><strong><em>“Sooner or later.” </em></strong>She smiles and shuts her eyes.</p><p>Dorn and I take a while to rest as we both had pushed ourselves to the limit.</p><p>Skaftá, in the meantime, heads out to gather some food for me and my brother. She only ends up returning in the later evening hours, bringing a deer and its young kit with her.</p><p>I quickly grab myself a piece of the mother, then leave the rest of it for my brother to eat.</p><p>As usual he’s done before my food even finishes cooking so we both watch and wait.</p><p>Eventually I get to eat as well and afterwards we’re right back to snuggling up to one another.</p><p>I only interrupt our time together to quickly set up a little campfire for the night.</p><p>Some time later Scáthán returns, again carrying two very tired out dragons on his back.</p><p>It looks like they’re both already asleep and when he carefully lifts them of his back it becomes quite obvious. They hang in the coils of his tail like wet rags.</p><p><em>“Oh my, I wonder what he did to them to make them that tired.” </em>I wonder quietly.</p><p><strong><em>“Lots of flying at high altitudes and speeds.” </em></strong>Scáthán replies after making sure both my siblings are safely on the ground. <em>“Sounds exhausting.” </em>I say, having little to no clue what that actually means for them. He goes to lie down next to mom and the four of us spend some time talking about our day. I learn what Scáthán meant earlier, it really is just him taking them far up into the skies and letting them figure out how to fly at those altitudes and teaching them how to handle nosedives.</p><p>Before long it’s dark out and bed time draws closer and I’m already kind of looking forward to it.</p><p>Though my excitement still feels misplaced at least the nagging concern from the last two days is</p><p>mostly gone now. Occasionally, my eyes wander over to Skaftá as I wonder if she’s fine with this arrangement too since it looks like it blocks her from eating anything for a while before night time.</p><p>She seems to notice and winks at me. <strong><em>“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine with this too.” </em></strong>For the briefest moment I see her tongue appear between her lips as she quickly licks her chops.</p><p>Much to my surprise I ‘m not afraid thanks to her behaviour, instead I just chuckle and stick my tongue out. <em>“Seems she’s enjoying it quite a bit as well.”</em></p><p>For a second, I peer over to Scáthán. <em>“But I also wouldn’t want him to feel left out…” </em>I take a moment to think.</p><p><em>“Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll go for it.” </em>Even though he isn’t listening in on my mind right now I can see him smile, seems he can sense the decision I just made.</p><p><em>“But for today I’ll just play it safe.” </em>I look back over to Skaftá who appears to have been watching me closely.</p><p>Dorn gently nudges me, bringing my attention back to him. <strong><em>“Shall we go to bed now then? I’m feeling a little tired.” </em></strong>He blinks slowly and rests his head against me.</p><p><em>“Sure, can do brother.” </em>I pat his head and smile. I don’t quite feel tired yet but I’m still exhausted so I wouldn’t mind resting.</p><p>I quickly take off most of my clothing and sort of just pile it up a little way away from the fire. Then get up and stretch my arms and legs before taking a deep breath and peering over to mom, making sure the path is clear. Then I take a small half step forward before quickly leaping forward one, twice and thrice, towards her. She watches me closely but doesn’t appear to react until I’m right in front of her and I plant my feet on the ground in preparation to jump. Faster than my eyes can follow she rips open her jaws and from instant to the next I find myself suddenly staring into her maw. For a split second I hesitate but then commit to the jump anyway, leaping forward and pulling my legs and arms close.</p><p>The landing on her tongue turns out rougher than expected. Inertia tries to keep me moving while the barbs on her tongue do their best to stop me. It feels like a worse version of tripping and falling in a gymnasium. Though luckily, I don’t get my skin scraped up, it just kind of feels like it.</p><p>Before I can even come to a full stop, she quickly flips me over twice to coat me in saliva before quickly throwing her head back and swallowing me. It all happens so fast I only realise what she did when I’m already halfway down her throat.</p><p><em>“Well I didn’t expect this…” </em>I think to myself as I’m quickly pushed further and further along until I slide into her stomach just a second later.</p><p><strong><em>“I don’t know what else you expected little one.” </em></strong>She says warmly.</p><p><em>“I don’t know either…” </em>After a moment of being dumbfounded I gather my bearings again and get comfortable. <strong><em>“Don’t just abandon me like this sister.” </em></strong>Dorn complains from the outside.</p><p>For some reason I expected his voice to be muffled but telepathy clearly isn’t bound by the laws of physics in that regard.</p><p><em>“Sorry brother but the urge to see how mom would react was too strong. Also what’s keeping you from joining me now?” </em> I let myself sink into Skaftás stomach walls.</p><p><strong><em>“Nothing but it’s about the principle.” </em></strong>He replies, trying to sound upset but doing a terrible job of it, probably intentionally as well. <em>“Don’t be silly little brother.” </em>I reply while chuckling.</p><p>I can sense his mind moving about, it seems mom snagged him off the ground and gobbled him up as well.</p><p>Not much later I hear the entry to her stomach open up next to me and my brother slides in. <strong><em>“There you go, now you’re united again.” </em></strong>Skaftá says, a certain cheekiness to her voice.</p><p><em>“Thank you, mom.” </em>I reply and wrap my arms around Dorn.</p><p>Much like the last two times we end up snuggling and hugging each other tightly as Skaftás stomach slowly churns away and her heart thumps in the background.</p><p><strong><em>“Sleep tight you two.” </em></strong>She says as she curls up and shuts her eyes.</p><p><strong><em>“Good night mom, good night dad.” </em></strong>Dorn and I reply in unison.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Chapter 25</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dorn is fast asleep just moments later. I take a little while longer but not much.</p><p>The night passes much too quickly for my taste and it only feels like I slept a few hours before Skaftás gently pulls me out of my dreams again. <strong><em>“Time to wake up you two.” </em></strong>Her voice softly sounds through my head.</p><p>I grumble and sleepily try to stretch, though I find that I can’t move too much. <em>“Is it morning already?” </em>I ask drowsily.</p><p><strong><em>“It’s just past the crack of dawn little one. I’ve got things to do today and would rather have you out now than bring you with me.” </em></strong>She replies, her voice just a gentle as before.</p><p><em>“Why not?” </em>I try to just turn around and ignore her.</p><p><strong><em>“Unless you want me to spit you out in the middle of the snowy outsides, you’d want to get out now.” </em></strong>She’s starting to sound a little more serious now.</p><p>After a some more grumbling and mumbling I reluctantly agree. Dorn seems to just be waking up as well.</p><p>She quickly regurgitates us and lets us slide out onto the rocky ground of the cave where she quickly licks most of the slime off of us.</p><p>As usual I wound up facing the ground and when I slowly push myself onto all fours, I notice something looming above me and it isn’t her head.</p><p>I turn my head to see what it is, at first, I can’t quite make it out as it appears to be translucent, then it dawns on me. <em>“Oh no…” </em>Is the only thing I can think before this gigantic ball of water drops onto me like a gigantic raindrop. As the lukewarm water hits me, I’m pressed to the ground by an incredible force, it feels like one of my parents were stepping on me.</p><p>Just as quickly as it began it’s over again but even with the water gone, I stay lying flat on the ground a little longer. <em>“What was that?” </em>I think to myself as I once again try to get up, now lying in a gigantic puddle. <em>“But moms’ eyes weren’t glow…” </em>Just then I realise who’s most likely to blame for this. I peer over to Scáthán with narrowed eyes and indeed his eyes still give off a faint glow.</p><p><em>“Why am I even surprised.” </em>I stand up and wipe the mix of water and saliva off me. <em>“At least it wasn’t too cold anymore.” </em>I shake my head and sigh. <em>“Thanks dad.” </em>I say to him with strong sarcasm in my voice.</p><p><strong><em>“No problem Arya. I figured this would be quicker and safer than Skaftá dumping you in the ocean.” </em></strong>He replies sounding all too content with himself.</p><p>I roll my eyes and groan. I won’t honour him with a reply to that, though he can sense my annoyance so he’s getting what he wants either way. <em>“One day, I swear.” </em>I shake off the last bits of water, leaving my skin only slightly damp. Scáthán winks at me and his eyes begin to glow a little more again. At the same time, I feel the last bit of water on my skin evaporate, leaving behind only a gentle warmth.</p><p>“Thanks.” I quietly grumble and go to put on some clothes.</p><p><strong><em>“If it’s of any solace for you sister, I wasn’t much luckier.” </em></strong>Dorn says to me as he staggers past me a little disoriented and soaking wet.</p><p>A quiet “Heh.” Escapes me as I instinctively take a few steps back, knowing what’s coming next.</p><p>Dorn stops and violently shakes his whole body to rid himself of the water clinging to his scales, sending it flying all over the place.</p><p>Fortunately, it seems I’m far enough away to not be hit by any of the droplets.</p><p><em>“At least I wasn’t the only one.” </em>I look over to Scáthán again. <em>“I do have to admit that it’s probably a better solution than the cold ocean water… Even though next time I’d like a warning before getting thousands of litres of water dumped onto me.” </em></p><p>He grins happily. <strong><em>“Well, from now on you’ll be prepared.” </em></strong></p><p>I just shake my head and take a deep breath.</p><p><strong><em>“I feel you sister.” </em></strong>Coille says to me. <strong><em>“He does this with just about everyone, so you’re not alone.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“That’s some solace at least.” </em>I walk over to her and gently rub her head. <em>“At least his erm pranks aren’t ill willed and not that harmful.” </em>She happily pushes her head against my head.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Indeed, and as much as I hate to admit it. In hindsight it often is kind of funny or at least practical.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod and hmm affirmatively. <em>“That’s probably the worst part of it.” </em></p><p>We’re interrupted by Skaftá telling Coille that they should get going soon. She had already picked up Aonar and Dorn and was heading towards the exit.</p><p>Coille shoots me a quick look to say goodbye and then runs after her mom, leaving me alone with Scáthán.</p><p><em>“Some form of warning would be nice next time.” </em>I say to him as I plant myself next to his front paws.</p><p><strong><em>“But where’s the fun in that.” </em></strong>He rests his head next to me so I can lean against it.</p><p>I decide to take him up on his offer and lean myself against his head, resting my arms atop his snout.</p><p><em>“I get that, but at least when it’s something like that just now, where I could get hurt if I panic, I’d like some form of warning. And before you argue that you can read my mind and knew I had just breathed in and was in no danger of breathing in water or worse, that doesn’t count as my monkey brain likes to ignore such facts in the moment.” </em>I stare into his eyes without averting my gaze for even a second.</p><p>He stares back, unblinking, and pauses for a second. <strong><em>“You’re right. I’ll need to control my urges more.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Luckily you waited until I noticed, I don’t know how I would have reacted otherwise. And I guess you’re not the only one guilty this time. Skaftá was in on it too wasn’t she?” </em>I pet his snout a little.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“She was indeed in on the plan. Though the idea to dump the water on you all at once was all mine and I take full responsibility for it. She really isn’t to blame here.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Alright. Anyway, let’s not simmer on this too long.” </em>I crack a slight smile and stretch my arms a little.</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed.” </em></strong>He smiles as well and keeps his eyes pinned on me. <strong><em>“On an unrelated note. I’m just noticing something.” </em></strong></p><p>I tilt my head and stare at him with great curiosity. <strong><em>“I sense an oddly large amount of magic energy in you.” </em></strong>I can feel his presence in my head grow. <strong><em>“Don’t get the wrong idea, it’s nothing ridiculous. It’s just that last week I had to focus on it to sense anything and now I don’t need to. It’s not enough energy to do anything useful with it yet but give it a few more weeks and you might be able make something happen.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Oooh. But how come it change so suddenly?” </em>I purse my lips and furrow my eyebrows.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Your guess is as good as mine. It does seem to coincide with you sleeping in Skaftás belly but that really shouldn’t affect it.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“Didn’t you say that the rate at which your magic seeps into me depends on the distance? Could that be the reason?” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“It could be but the energy density in her stomach shouldn’t be that different from where you sit right now.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>“True… Though it aligns almost too well to be a coincidence.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I agree but it could very well be that I wasn’t paying as close attention as I though I was before. Or it could be related with your mental abilities improving as you’ve made quite some progress over the last week. And you need to remember that we’re talking about magic here. Something that isn’t well understood at all.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“It’s a bit like trying to predict the weather… No matter how hard you try it’ll do something unpredictable anyway. But hey, I’m just happy that I might be able to use magic soon.” </em>I eyes turn glassy as my mind runs through the millions of things I want to try.</p><p>Scáthán my mind closely and after a little while interrupts my stream of thoughts. <strong><em>“I like your enthusiasm but don’t be too hasty. Just like your mental abilities, your magic will be very limited at first. You’re likely better off taking small steps and setting small goals first before trying bigger and more dangerous things. Remember what we told you about magic. It’s a very fickle thing that, if your focus slips, can wreak havoc on everything. And especially with magic it’s easy to maim or even kill someone.” </em></strong></p><p>I nod slowly and earnestly. <em>“I remember very well. But then how will you make sure I can learn magic safely?” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Similarly, to how you started mental training. We’ll keep a very close eye on you and when we notice your attention slipping or that you’re getting yourself into dangerous territory we’ll intervene. But I’m optimistic that that won’t be necessary often.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Exciting. But the way you worded that makes me think that my mental training is directly linked to training my magic abilities? The better my grip on my mind the quicker and safer I’ll be able to learn magic.” </em>I can barely contain my giddiness.</p><p><strong><em>“That is likely to be the case, but I can’t make any promises.” </em></strong>He appears to enjoy my enthusiasm quite a bit.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Chapter 26</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I’m already preparing myself to zone out when I realise that I’ve been feeling oddly energetic for the past few days as well. That too coincides with my first night in moms’ stomach. <em>“You think that could be related too?” </em>I ask quickly.</p><p><strong><em>“Looks to be pretty likely as well, though I’m not sure if it’s connected to the size of your magic energy reserves.” </em></strong>I can sense that he too is still thinking about it, trying to find a conclusion.</p><p><em>“Well even if it isn’t, I think I’ll just keep it up anyway. Not like there’s any harm in getting some good sleep.” </em>I wink at him and smile.</p><p><strong><em>“Truly, if you don’t mind, I don’t see a reason to stop.” </em></strong>He licks his chops and winks back.</p><p><em>“On a more serious note, please don’t pull any tricks later today?” </em>I stare deep into his eyes and try to make it clear as day that I’m dead serious.</p><p><strong><em>“Definitely. I watched your mind closely during the past few days and am very aware that that won’t be the time for jokes.” </em></strong>His expression suddenly changes as well, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this serious and judging by his mind he too means it.</p><p><em>“Good, it’s not that I don’t trust you. I just wanted to make it clear. I feel like when it comes to letting you eat me alive communication is key.” </em>I crack the slightest smile.</p><p>He murmurs affirmatively. <strong><em>“I know you trust me but at the same time this is not something that should be taken lightly.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Good to know we’re on the same page then.” </em>I lightly pat his head. <em>“I’ll be looking forward to tonight then.” </em>I stare off into the distance and mentally try to imagine what it’ll be like. Before my inner eye I can see him shut his jaws around me and gulp me down in one swift motion. My heart already begins to pick up the pace and a certain nervousness sets in, but I manage to mostly keep it down. <em>“Anyway…” </em>I snap myself out of my thoughts and turn my eyes back to Scáthán. <em>“That is for later.” </em></p><p>He smiles and again makes an agreeing noise.</p><p>I shift around a little and stare off into the distance once more, this time intending to zone out and going through my usual routine of trying to sense any living beings nearby.</p><p>Things go as usual for a few hours, I manage to spot some larger animals above and not much else.</p><p>Around the midday I switch to working on my mental barrier and test it with Scátháns help.</p><p>Eventually it’s time for me to go back to sensing nearby minds but this time I notice a lot more formless blobs around me. I pause for a moment, this had happened a few times before but never lasted. Except this time.</p><p>Even after a few minutes I can still see dozens of blobs floating above me. As I try to figure out what kind of animal, they belong to I notice that aside from the usual larger animals I am also sensing smaller ones like boars and foxes. Rabbits and smaller critters still elude me at these distances but most things larger than that register on my mental radar. <em>“Holy shit.” </em>I think to myself as I take in the scenery of feeling dozens and dozens of animals around me. <em>“Now to do it again.” </em>I force myself back into the real world and take a moment to think back and figure out what I did differently.</p><p><em>“Nope, nothing. Just zoned out and then there they were… I wonder if it’ll just happen again.” </em>I think to myself after a while.</p><p>As I’m spacing out again, I get the feeling that it’ll just be back to normal, that I won’t be see anything smaller than a deer anymore.</p><p>Much to my surprise however, I can see all the same animals that I saw before. A few seem to have disappeared but that could very well be because they simply moved out of range.</p><p>I’m starting to hope that it’s going to stick this time. Just to be sure I try a few more times and indeed, every time I zone out a very similar picture presents itself to me.</p><p>I can’t help but smile like a fool. <em>“Is this it? Did I finally get the hang of it?” </em>I peer over at dad and while he doesn’t make a sound, I can sense him agreeing.</p><p><em>“But why all the sudden? I thought this would be a gradual process?”</em> I wonder quietly.</p><p><strong><em>“It seems you hit the threshold to let you see these smaller animals. You were indeed gradually getting better but since there’s a sort of size gap in the fauna you didn’t see any improvements. That is until today.” </em></strong>Scáthán answers after a brief pause.</p><p>
  <em>“Interesting, you could tell? Also how come boars and foxes fall in the same erm… size category? They’re quite different in size.” </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Not sure myself. But there also weren’t many around for the last few weeks so chances are you just missed them.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Hmmm, I guess so.” </em>I can’t help but happily wiggle my feet as I try once again to zone out. Just to make sure it’s still working.</p><p>My vision turns blurry and dozens of small formless balls appear above me once again. A wide smile appears on my lips as I idly stare into the ceiling of the cave. I wonder if I should try reaching for one of them, it’s quite the distance but now I really want to see what I can do if I make contact with their minds.</p><p><strong><em>“Go for it little one. You’ve strayed farther before and I’ll reel you back in if I notice anything.” </em></strong>Scáthán encourages me.</p><p>He doesn’t need to tell me that twice as I immediately focus on one of the closer blobs. From here I can’t yet make out what it is, but it has to be something small, rabbit or rat maybe.</p><p>I watch this copper coloured tendril appear and grow towards the blob, it feels like an eternity but eventually it touches.</p><p>Turns out I was looking at a wild cat that was sleeping there. Its mind lies idle, processing the events of the night before, seems it caught quite a lot of prey.</p><p>As I watch it dream my mind begins to envelop it, just like Skaftá did when she broke my mind open.</p><p>I consider doing so as well, I tried my hand at it before with her but then I remember the consequences of it. <em>“No, it doesn’t deserve this…” </em>And with that I slowly withdraw again, wondering what I’ll do next.</p><p>Whilst I sit there thinking I notice that even while distracted I can feel Scátháns presence in my head and kind of feel his thoughts. That in itself wasn’t anything new but I always had to focus on his mind to hear and feel his thoughts, now they were just…there. A constant quiet whisper of sorts that I could easily block out if I wanted but was always there nonetheless.</p><p>My eyes wander over to dad, wondering if it’s his doing. When our eyes me it is quite obvious that he had been watching me but that could very well have been for other reasons as well.</p><p>I slightly raise one eyebrow and keep staring at him.</p><p><strong><em>“It seems your mind can finally process the full telepathic connection between us.” </em></strong>He smiles at me.</p><p><em>“So, I’m not imagining this?” </em>I ask back, still staring at him with an inquisitive expression.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“No, you’re seeing the effects of me not filtering our mental connection. You might remember us telling you about how we need to limit it to keep your mind from getting overloaded. Seems that is no longer necessary as your brain can now handle the full load.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Does that mean I’ll now constantly hear your thoughts in the back of my head like I can right now?” </em>A little grin appears on my lips as I begin to realise what this might mean.</p><p><strong><em>“Indeed, though as you already noticed you’re free to block it out at any time. Which is probably what you’ll want to do a good chunk of the time unless you like having five quiet voices talking in the back of your head at all times. And don’t think you’ll be able to avoid all tricks I might pull on you. I can still cut the connection between us, so you won’t know what I’m planning.” </em></strong>He too begins to grin and winks at me.</p><p><em>“Oh, I know. I wasn’t hoping to predict your every move. But now I’ll at least know when you’re planning something and that’s all I wanted.” </em>I stick out my tongue and stare off into the distance while focussing on his mind a little more.</p><p>I can sense that he seems a little bothered but is trying to hide it. I can’t help but chuckle a little. This is probably the first time I managed to do this to him and feels oddly good. Though I shouldn’t get too comfortable, I have a feeling this just gave him the reasons to be even sneakier.</p><p>Fortunately, it seems he’s holding still, for now, and that I’ll get to go on like formal.</p><p>For the next few hours I keep working on my mental barrier and Scáthán happily helps me test it. The progress I’ve made today gives me motivation to push myself to the absolute limit. Never has my mental barrier been this strong, never has my control of my mind been better. I’m feel like the rush of dopamine will never stop. Things are going well, almost too well.</p><p>That is until I notice that my vision isn’t completely clearing up any more even when I’m not spaced out. Though I decide to ignore it for now, it’s not too bad and I’ve had that happen before and it always went away soon.</p><p>Except this time, it doesn’t. I keep pushing nonetheless, todays events gave me way too much motivation to stop now.</p><p>My blurry vision is soon joined by a light headache. It’s little more than a minor throbbing pain at the base of my skull so it too, is easy to ignore.</p><p>However not much later I’m starting to feel dizzy as well and the headache quickly begins to grow from a minor throb to a blinding searing pain all throughout my head. <strong><em>“I think you should be taking a break little one. Don’t push yourself too hard.” </em></strong>Scáthán had been quiet on my deteriorating mental state until now.</p><p>I groan and try my best to ignore the pain. <em>“But I want to keep going. I feel like I’m making such good progress.” </em></p><p><strong><em>“At this rate you might end up hurting yourself and set yourself back who knows how far.” </em></strong>He reminds me sternly.</p><p><em>“Okay, okay, fine.” </em>I rest my head in my palms and take a few deep breaths, but the pain just keeps getting worse.</p><p>Scáthán carefully wraps his tail around me and very slowly turns me on my side. <strong><em>“It’s probably for the best if you rest a little now.” </em></strong></p><p>Even though he moved me so slowly I still feel my head spin and a sour taste fills my mouth, it feels like I’m about to throw up.</p><p><em>“Why today of all days…” </em>I think to myself while I do my best to keep my breakfast down.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I think it might have to do with you overworking your brain. Think of it like exercising, if you over do it your body will make you pay for it.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I just reply with a groan and hide my face in my hands. My cheeks feel hot and my eyes feel like they’re trying to pop out of my skull.</p><p>I wish there was something that could be done about it but there was no way I was getting my hand on any kind of painkillers and I doubt that there’d be any medicinal herbs nearby.</p><p>Amidst all the pain I feel dads mind encroach on mine, normally I’d wonder what he’s up to but right now I’m much too preoccupied.</p><p>Suddenly the pain quickly ebbs away. It doesn’t disappear completely but it’s bearable all the sudden.</p><p>Now I also notice that Scáthán has kind of taken over my mind. He hasn’t taken control away from me, but his mind seems to have permeated throughout most of mine. <em>“What are you doing?” </em>I ask him, mildly worried.</p><p><strong><em>“I couldn’t bear watching you suffer like this, so I took some of your pain away.” </em></strong>He replies quickly.</p><p><em>“You can do that?” </em>I ask, carefully removing my hands from my face. It really does feel like some pain medication just kicked in.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Indeed, though we usually prefer not to do that. If you’re hurting, there’s probably a reason for it and we need to find the cause of it. This time is a little different obviously.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>I nod slowly and sigh a sigh of relief. <em>“Thank you so much. I hope my pain doesn’t bother you.” </em>I weakly pet the tip of his snout.</p><p><strong><em>“Oh, trust me, this is little more than a minor headache for me. Just remember to not push yourself too hard in the future okay?” </em></strong>He carefully licks my hand and smiles.</p><p>I smile back and nod. <em>“Don’t overwork myself, noted.” </em>I shake his saliva off my hand and am suddenly feeling quite tired.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“If you want to you can nap for a bit. It’s probably the best thing you can do for your brain.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“I don’t think I’ll get much of a say in that.” </em>I reply as I yawn. At this rate I’ll be out cold in a matter of minutes.</p><p>Scáthán makes a bemused noise and blinks slowly. <strong><em>“Then sleep well little one.” </em></strong></p><p>I barely get to mutter a reply before my eyes fall shut and stay shut.</p><p>Some time later, I’m not sure if it had been thirty minutes or several hours, my eyes pop open again.</p><p>My headache is completely gone now, my vision clears up after blinking a couple times though I’m feeling a little cold now.</p><p><strong><em>“Welcome back Arya.” </em></strong>Scáthán greets me and carefully turns me upright before removing his tail from me.</p><p>I stretch thoroughly and yawn. <strong><em>“Seems you’re doing better now.” </em></strong>I quickly nod and stand up to stretch my legs.</p><p><strong><em>“Would you mind if I caught myself some food? I’d be a while.” </em></strong>He watches me as I slowly walk around.</p><p><em>“Go ahead, I’ll keep myself busy somehow.” </em>I turn towards him and smile. <em>“And before you say anything, I also won’t do anything remotely dangerous.” </em></p><p>He nods and gets up to head out of the cave.</p><p>Once I’m alone I realise that I probably should have asked him to light me a fire before he left.</p><p><em>“Oh well, just have to keep myself busy now then.” </em>I think to myself as I scan the cave.</p><p>With my parents gone it feels so much larger. Its true size had never been all that apparent with either of them here. Their gigantic size somehow made this cave feel a lot smaller.</p><p><em>“Funny how that goes.” </em>I think to myself.</p><p>After taking some time to appreciate the true dimensions of the cave and wondering if there’ll soon be rocks falling from the ceiling as it looks rather unstable in certain places, I glance over at the pile of my stuff.</p><p><em>“I could probably clean my kitchenware a bit more thoroughly, and my clothes too. Maybe even change into some new ones…” </em>I look down myself and notice that my shirt and jeans had indeed become rather stained. <em>“Yeaaah.” </em></p><p>I quickly change and then gather up some things before heading to the caves entrance to start cleaning.</p><p>The pot and plate are rather easy to clean, needing little more than a rinse and some light scrubbing. My clothes however, aren’t so easy to clean. The stains seem to be ingrained in the fabric and the ocean water barely does anything to them.</p><p>However, knowing that I’ve probably got a few hours I don’t really mind this taking longer than expected. As I’m busy cleaning I also notice how quiet my mind feels without this constant background noise coming from my father. <em>“I wonder how much that’ll start bothering me…” </em></p><p>I keep idly thinking about it for a while until I get distracted by other thoughts.</p><p>Sadly, it seems my shirt is beyond saving though, as even after half an hour of trying it doesn’t look much better. <em>“That was to be expected I guess.” </em>I think to myself as I wring it out. The jeans are more of the same and after some twenty minutes I stop bothering with them as well. <em>“But do I really care about stains? As long as they can keep me warm and don’t give me any disease, I’ll be fine.” </em>With my hands numb from the cold water I head back inside and use the rack for the pot to hang my clothes.</p><p>Afterwards I figure I might as well tidy up my box of stuff and do other menial stuff around the cave. Anything to keep me moving.</p><p>Even while taking my time I still finish everything I want to do way before dad returns. With nothing to do I idly walk circles around the cave for a bit before getting bored out of my mind and deciding that I might as well lie down in bed.</p><p>With the blanket tightly wrapped around me I lie on my side, hands placed under my head as a makeshift pillow.</p><p>I blankly stare at the rocks in front of me, my head completely empty.</p><p>I’m not sure if I fell asleep or not but I’m snapped out of my mindless haze when I hear the sound of rucks crunching under heavy paws.</p><p>Without having to check I already know that it’s Scáthán returning as I can already hear his thoughts again. It seems he’s quite full and content now and quite keen on just lounging around for the rest of the day.</p><p><em>“Welcome back dad.” </em>I greet him before he even turns the corner.</p><p>He freezes for a second, not expecting me to have already sensed his mind.</p><p><strong><em>“Sorry I forgot you can now passively sense me coming… Thank you little one.” </em></strong>He quickly trots into the cave and lies down next to me.</p><p><em>“Had quite the successful hunt I see.” </em>I say to him as I notice his belly looking visibly bigger than before and well the blood on his snout.</p><p><strong><em>“Quite successful indeed.” </em></strong>He licks his chops, revealing some more blood and bits and pieces of his prey sticking to his teeth.</p><p><em>“Very good.” </em>I’m surprised by how little his display of gore covered teeth bothered me</p><p>I decide to not think too much about it and just move on.</p><p>
  <em>“Since we talked about you noticing an increased amount of magic in me, how much are we talking about?”</em>
</p><p><strong><em>“Hmmm, hard to say actually. You humans don’t carry a lot of magic but among your kind it still fluctuates a lot, in relative terms at least…” </em></strong>He pauses to think for a moment.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“I want to say you’ve got about three times more magic energy in you than the average human.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Interesting, and how far am I from being able to do anything with it?” </em>I scratch my chin, wondering how much energy we’re talking about here but if I can’t do anything with it, it must be truly miniscule.</p><p><strong><em>“Hard to say as well, depends a lot on how adept you turn out to be with magic. But I think if you triple your current reserves again there’s a decent chance it’ll become useable.” </em></strong>He carefully sneaks his tail under the blanket and loosely places it around me. I gladly embrace it and pull it close.</p><p>
  <em>“You keep saying that that my magic will become useable, what do you mean by that? Like could I light a fire or use it to hunt at that point?” </em>
</p><p><strong><em>“You’d still be pretty far away from lighting a fire with it and you should refrain from using it to hunt until you get a better grasp of how magic works. When I say useable, I mean doing anything with it at all. Like making a pebble wobble, lifting a tiny droplet of water from the ocean or similarly small things.” </em></strong>He tightens his tail around me. <strong><em>“Also, you seem to be cold.” </em></strong></p><p><em>“Just a little.” </em>I reply and snuggle against his tail. <em>“Give it a bit and I’ll warm right up. And I see, so at first, it’ll probably feel quite underwhelming. But come time, come more energy, come bigger spells.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>“Correct, give it another few years and there’ll be so much you can do with it. That is if it keeps going at this rate.” </em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>“Exciting to see actual progress on that front as well.” </em>I smile happily and stare off into the distance as I let my imagination roam free. Maybe I can become like of the characters from books I read one day.</p>
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